THE BEST OF FRIENDS

A shocking shooting involving their teenage sons leads three best friends to first come apart, then come together to figure out what happened that fateful night.

Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani, longtime friends who’ve grown up together and raised children together, now face their biggest struggle. A sleepover among their three teenage sons has claimed the life of Kendra’s son, Sawyer, and sent Lindsey’s son, Jacob, into a coma with a self-inflicted bullet. As alternating chapters represent each woman’s viewpoint (though their voices sound remarkably similar), the friends try to piece together what happened. Dani’s son, Caleb, is physically unscathed, but he barely talks or responds to anything except the nightmares haunting his every moment. Each woman is moved by forces such as her relationship with her husband and other children. Dani particularly suffers, as her husband, Bryan, resolves to lawyer up, making Dani look to Lindsey and Kendra as if she’s got something to hide. Dani makes no attempt to conceal the fact that Bryan’s gun did the shooting, but she’s unwilling to admit the extent to which Bryan controls her and her daughter, Luna. As Kendra faces the loss of her son, Lindsey drifts through a twilight zone in between worlds, taking care of Jacob the best she can and wondering what would ever drive her happy-go-lucky son to try to end his own life. The ongoing investigation by Detective Martin Locke, a high school acquaintance of the women, intensifies questions about who’s to blame.

A mother’s worst nightmare on the page. For those who dare.