The Book:
The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry, 2020
The Characters:
Kendra, her husband Paul, and sons Sawyer (dead) and Reese
Lindsey, her husband Andrew, and children Jacob (coma), Wyatt, and Sutton
Dani, her husband Bryan, and children Caleb (mute) and Luna
Detective Martin Locke
The Plot (from Goodreads):
An unthinkable tragedy forever changes a group of teens and turns family against family in this edge-of-your-seat thriller that begs to be read in one sitting.
Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani endure every parent’s nightmare when a tragic accident befalls their teenage boys, leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak.
Reeling from the worst night of their lives, the three mothers plunge into a desperate investigation of the bizarre incident. How could something so horrible happen in their wealthy Southern California suburb?
They soon discover that the accident was just the beginning, and troubling discoveries lead to chilling questions: Do they really know their children? Do they even know each other? As more secrets surface, a fog of doubt and suspicion threatens to poison their families, their friendships, and the whole community.
With the illusion of happiness and safety long gone, these women must now confront the hazards of heartbreak, the consequences of jealousy, and the dangers of living double lives.
As the investigation proceeds, secrets begin to come out. Bryan is a drunk and a bully who abuses Dani, and Caleb has inherited his temper, especially when drunk. Reese is apparently a preteen drug dealer, and might have supplied the boys with drugs on the night of the incident. Andrew has been emotionally cheating on Lindsey.
All three boys apparently went to a frat party the night of the incident, and Luna brought them home because they were wasted and causing a scene. They were also seemingly fighting over girls.
The Twist:
Jacob and Sawyer were a couple (I guessed this from the first time Sawyer’s mother described the pictures of Jacob in Sawyer’s phone). Kendra finds Sawyer’s burner phone that he used to contact Jacob throughout their relationship and brought it to the other women.
The Ending:
Caleb finally spoke, and confessed that he killed Sawyer. They were completely wasted after the party, and Sawyer and Jacob were fighting about their relationship. Sawyer was telling Caleb to stop treating him like a f****t, and describing what he’d do to Luna (Caleb’s sister) to prove he’s not gay.
Caleb doesn’t remember getting the gun, but when he came back down Sawyer was laying into Jacob. Caleb told him to back off, put the gun into his stomach to threaten him, and then the gun unintentionally went off. As Caleb was trying to help Sawyer, Jacob took the gun and shot himself in the head.
Jacob passed away once the secret was out.
Somehow Kendra, Lindsey, and Dani were able to remain friends throughout Caleb’s trial.
In the epilogue, we find out that Dani was Andrew’s lover, but since the website was anonymous they didn’t know. I think this part should have been left out–it’s a little too far fetched that they both anonymously went on the internet for companionship and just happened to use the same website and connect with each other.
The Review:
This one has been on my NetGalley shelf for a long time, and man did I miss out by not reading it sooner. I was drawn in right away, immediately wanting to know what happened the night that Sawyer died (not a spoiler, you find out which boy is which right in the first few pages).
The Best of Friends reminds you that tragedy can strike at any time, no matter how perfect and safe your life seems. I definitely got emotional at points, which I take as a sign it was a great book.
Definitely a quick, engaging read. I wouldn’t call this one a thriller, though–more like domestic suspense. You already know the “ending” at the beginning of the book, you just don’t know why it happened. I’ve seen a lot of domestic suspense novels incorrectly marketed as thrillers lately, I wonder why that is.
My only complaint is that it was a little difficult to keep the characters separate at first–their families are all so similar and the narrators so interchangeable that I had to write down the names and who was whose son. It didn’t help that in a typo, Caleb was referred to as Jacob! Once I got a hang of who was who, though, the story moved quickly. I wouldn’t let the confusion stop you from finishing the book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Read this if you liked:
- The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth
