College Friends Reunite After a Tragic Loss in “Friends and Liars” — See the Cover and Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive)

Kit Frick's latest release follows a group of former college roommates holding onto a dark secret about the death of an old friend

Kit Frick is introducing audiences to her latest project, Friends and Liars!

The Pittsburgh author, whose previous books include the 2020 YA novel I Killed Zoe Spanos and 2024's The Split, is back with a thriller that delves into the friendships and betrayals of a group of former college roommates holding onto a dark secret.

Friends and Liars arrives on Dec. 2, 2025 via Atria, and PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the book's cover, alongside an early excerpt of the forthcoming thriller.

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Per a synopsis, the story follows Luca, Harper, Sirina and David five years after the death of Clare Monroe at her family's Italian estate. While the group's "desperate decision to conceal the truth destroyed their once-close bond," they now must return to the Monroe's lakeside palazzo for a "long-overdue celebration of life party."

"Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David have barely settled into the idyllic estate with the rest of Clare’s family before they become targets of a series of unsettling occurrences," the synopsis teases.

"Someone here knows the truth, and as the menacing taunts and threats escalate, it becomes swiftly clear that nothing is as it seems at the Monroe palazzo, and their secret — and their lives — are in danger."

Read an exclusive excerpt below.

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Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020

Los Angeles Times

Heiress’s Body Recovered from Lake Como

Following an extensive search by an Italian dive team, the remains of a young woman were recovered in Lake Como, Italy, early yesterday morning. The body has been identified by the family as belonging to Ms. Clare Annabelle Monroe, 21, of Los Angeles. Ms. Monroe, partial heir to the Monroe family fortune, died by accidental drowning on the night of Dec. 31, 2019, during a New Year’s Eve celebration.

Ms. Monroe was on vacation with her family and a group of friends at one of the Monroes’ several vacation homes, a historic palazzo near Bellagio. She is survived by her father, Hollywood venture capitalist Samuel Monroe, her mother, Helena Monroe, née Ashford, and her siblings, Tanner and Emmaline Monroe. A remembrance will be held at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church this Saturday, Jan. 4, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Inner-City Arts.

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Lake Como, Italy

THE PARTY AT THE VILLA

A single chilling wail erupts from the grand ballroom on Palazzo Mella’s ground floor, cutting through the whir of the choppers above. The cry sails through the wide oak doors, flung open to invite the summer breeze to mingle among the antique gilt chairs and heavy tapestries and Renaissance Revival–era statuary, and travels across the stone terrace and through the garden.

Finally, the sound reaches the jittery group gathered beneath the marble archways outside the palazzo’s guest villa. There are 14 at the memorial party, including the hosts — six Monroes, two friends so old and so dear they are nearly family themselves, and Clare’s four college ride-or-dies, two of whom have brought plus-ones.

It is June 8, the day that would have marked Clare’s 27th birthday, the culmination of a weeklong celebration honoring the eldest Monroe daughter’s life. Cocktail hour began at 5, hosted by Aunt Catherine in the guest villa’s lovely stone courtyard. At 7:15, the helicopters were scheduled to whisk the guests to Como to attend the ribbon-cutting for the Clare Annabelle Monroe Centro per le Arti dello Spettacolo. Five hundred family friends and curious members of the public have already gathered outside the recently completed building, awaiting the Monroes’ arrival.

But there has been a delay. Nearly half the guests are missing from the party.

And now, a scream.

The voice crying out is young, female. It takes the guests back to that horrible New Year’s Eve on the lake. To the voice they heard call out five winters ago, the night Clare drowned. To Clare’s body floating beneath a spray of fireworks, then sinking to the depths below.

The guests stand frozen in the courtyard of the guest villa as tonight’s wail is swallowed by the roar of the helicopters above. For one fleeting moment, reluctant to accept that tragedy has struck the Monroe family once again, everyone draws a collective breath and hopes they’ve heard nothing at all.

Then a figure bursts through the open ballroom doors, shattering the fantasy. The woman streaks across the terrace and into the garden, where she collapses to the grass, party dress drenched in blood.

Hearts in their throats, champagne splashing to the flagstones, everyone runs.

Excerpted from Friends and Liars by Kit Frick published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Copyright © 2025 by Kit Frick

Friends and Liars by Kit Frick is out Dec. 2 and available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.