Seven thrillers in which friendships are tested

Megan Collins is the author of Thicker Than Water, The Family Plot, Behind the Red Door, and The Winter Sister.

[The Page 69 Test: The Family Plot]

She received her B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and she holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University, where she was a teaching fellow. She has taught creative writing at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Central Connecticut State University, and she is Managing Editor of 3Elements Review. A Pushcart Prize and two-time Best of the Net nominee, her work has appeared in many print and online journals, including Compose, Linebreak, Off the Coast, Spillway, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Rattle. She lives in Connecticut.

At CrimeReads Collins tagged seven "thrillers where friendships are tested—by old secrets, dark truths, and a few dead bodies." One title on the list:

Andrea Bartz, We Were Never Here

Emily and Kristen are having the time of their life in Chile when Emily returns to their hotel to find that Kristen has killed a backpacker in self-defense—an act that’s eerily similar to what happened on their trip the previous year in Cambodia. Now, as they return to their homes on opposite sides of the world, Emily gets to work trying to process the horror of their latest trip. But when Kristen shows up unexpectedly, inserting herself into every corner of Emily’s life, Emily wonders what really happened in Chile—and who Kristen really is. While this book is a ton of page-turning fun from start to finish, it’s also a deeply sobering look at gaslighting and toxic relationships, imbued with Bartz’s trademark vivid writing that powerfully examines complicated female friendships.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue