Eight of the best female friendships in books

Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include The Better Sister, The Wife, optioned for a feature film by Amazon, and The Ex, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel. She is also the co-author of the bestselling Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. She currently serves as the President of Mystery Writers of America and is the first woman of color to be elected to that position. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton.

Burke's new novel is Find Me [UK title: The Girl She Was].

[Q&A with Alafair Burke]

At CrimeReads Burke tagged eight of her favorite female friendships in books, including:

Perhaps no crime writer resides as comfortably at the intersection between female friendship and competition as Megan Abbott. In Give Me Your Hand, Kit and Diane were best friends—until they weren’t. Now years later, the two ambitious women are at the top of their profession, and the secrets that tore them apart refuse to remain hidden.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Give Me Your Hand is among Lisa Levy's eight top thrillers about women in the workplace, Layne Fargo's eight top thrillers featuring ambitious women, Allison Dickson's ten thrillers featuring a dance of girlfriends and deception and Carl Vonderau's nine notable moral compromises in crime fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue