With Friends Like These

“Deliciously twisty…. A heady mix of dark academia, spiraling stakes, and tangled loyalties. ” —Ruth Ware, New York Times. bestselling author A group of Harvard alums have played a secret game for decades but as the stakes rise, deadly consequences emerge from old lies. An unputdownable debut thriller for readers of the suspenseful novels of Julia Bartz and Katy Hays. Harvard promised them everything. At eighteen years old, six young women had ambitious futures ahead: bright careers, love affairs, an education that would open doors for the rest of their lives. Sara’s college roommates were the family she never had: Bee the political hopeful, Dina the academic prodigy, Allie the family girl, Wesley the hard-partying heiress, and Claudine, the Southern belle— the closest thing Sara had ever known to a sister. But their senior year, Claudine died, and everything changed. Twenty years later, the five college roommates still indulge in a secret tradition they’ve kept alive since their campus days: the Circus, a harmless assassin-style game played across New York City. Inside the private rooms and down the hidden alleys of the city, they compete every year with water guns for "kills," despite whatever might be happening in their bustling lives. The game is a nod to their college selves and the sixth roommate they lost too young— but this year, Sara keeps catching inexplicable glimpses of Claudine, and she wants out of the Circus. But when Sara discovers there is a small fortune awaiting the winner of this final round, she agrees out of loyalty and desperation to play one last time. As the Circus unfolds, Sara begins to suspect the others aren’t playing by the rules, and as the danger turns real and the roommates start pointing fingers, she discovers that even her closest friends harbor secrets of their own— and those secrets have turned deadly.