Andrea Bartz, the bestselling author of THE LOST NIGHT and THE HERD, takes her readers to the gorgeous mountains of Chile in her new thriller, WE WERE NEVER HERE.

“What happened was this: A man attacked me in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and we killed him in self-defense.” For the past year, Emily has struggled with PTSD following her annual reunion trip with her best friend, Kristen. Emily and Kristen have always delighted in exploring new countries, especially those not as frequently featured as popular vacation destinations like Paris, London or Italy. Last year, they found themselves in Cambodia, where Emily was attacked by a man she took back to their hotel room. Just as the situation was about to potentially turn deadly for her, Kristen appeared, knocking the man over the head and killing him. Conscious of the dangers of traveling alone as women, with their heads full of stories of corrupt police and judicial systems, and the ways that a tragic mistake can ruin a person’s life forever, Emily and Kristen hid his body and moved on with their lives. Or at least Kristen did.

"The way Bartz combines a toxic friendship with an alliance-building secret is positively chilling and makes for an utterly pulse-pounding read that will have you second-guessing every interaction while reveling in the power of a woman who goes after what she wants --- at any cost."

Emily has spent the last year avoiding contact with men, oscillating between moments of utter terror as she remembers her sexual assault and wallowing in guilt over the death of the man who, while definitely aggressive and obviously violent, by no means deserved to die. For the first few months after the incident, Emily stopped eating, attending work and engaging with her life in Wisconsin, while Kristen tried to make the most of her new life in Australia. But now the young women are back together again --- and what better setting for their reunion than Chile with its gorgeous mountains, glittering sea and extensive farmlands? Though their trip gets off to a somewhat rocky start, with Emily startled by Kristen’s willingness to put Cambodia behind them, they soon find themselves back in the groove of their college-formed, life-changing friendship.

On the last night of their trip, Kristen, smarting from the news that Emily has a new man in her life, takes a stranger back to their hotel room with her. The girls have a code that they use to work out these encounters, and while Emily is surprised that Kristen would spend their last night with someone else, she isn’t bitter or resentful at being “sexiled.” But when she returns to their room at the agreed-upon time, she finds a shocking scene: a crying Kristen curled up on the floor, and a bloody man murdered at the foot of the bed. Kristen swears she acted in self-defense, and as a feminist, a best friend and, most of all, a woman, Emily feels compelled to believe her, despite her obvious lack of bruising or injuries. Once again they find themselves covering up a murder, disposing of a body and convincing themselves that a life lost to self-defense is better than two lives utterly destroyed after a senseless moment of violence.

Triggered by the eerie similarities to her own attack and dark secret, Emily is eager to return home to boring, safe Wisconsin, where her new beau, Aaron, is waiting for her. Her mental well-being has been rocked by Kristen’s attack, but even though she feels herself going under, she is more concerned about her friend. Emily remembers vividly the year after her attack, the way she saw her attacker in every man, the way any puddle or splash of red looked like his blood pooling on the floor. But Kristen seems...fine? Upbeat and jovial, and morbidly cavalier, she surprises Emily by showing up on her doorstep for a visit and delivering some big news: she is moving back to Wisconsin.

Emily should be over the moon: not only will she have her best friend back, they can work through the trauma of their trip to Chile together. So why is she so put off by Kristen’s behavior? Everyone processes grief and trauma differently, but Kristen’s response seems not just unusual but downright chilling. With Kristen back in her life and a new boyfriend keeping an eye on her, Emily starts to examine her friendship with a girl who always had her back but often led her to strange, inexplicable behaviors, like pulling away from other friends or dumping perfectly good men for no reason. As she works to forget the two worst nights of her life, Emily must reflect on the hold Kristen has over her --- and if she really has her best interests at heart, or if she is orchestrating something far more devious.

In a sea of thrillers about wives, daughters and mistresses, Andrea Bartz’s stories are like a breath of fresh air. She knows and writes villainous women incredibly well, but there is something deliciously devious in the fact that her women act entirely on their own, never as a result of a man’s actions or under his control. She has a reputation for writing intense female friendships and rivalries, but here she takes a razor-sharp look at best friendships, our besties, the girls we know better than we know ourselves, who we love and hate in equal measure, and the ways we grant them control over our lives. Much like Caroline Kepnes’ YOU, the book succeeds on this level because it speaks to readers’ baser instincts. After all, who doesn’t want to save a best friend from an attacker, or warn her away from a mediocre boyfriend?

There are a lot of timely conversations about tourism, violence against women and the value of a life. The way Bartz combines a toxic friendship with an alliance-building secret is positively chilling and makes for an utterly pulse-pounding read that will have you second-guessing every interaction while reveling in the power of a woman who goes after what she wants --- at any cost. Atmospheric, unsettling and totally gripping, WE WERE NEVER HERE is yet another intelligent and observant novel from this gifted and talented author.