My name is Gwen Maner, and my days are spent working a job I’m not prepared for, caring for my daughter as a single mom, and hanging with my new bestie, Nicola. It’s certainly not the life I expected, but after my husband died of a heart attack three months ago, I had another surprise coming: he’d left me dead broke.

Luckily, Nicola had my back, even though we’d been out of touch for over a decade. After Todd died, I called her, hoping she might be able to give me a reference since we interned together back in college, but she did way more than that. Not only did she help me get an interview, but thanks to her fancy footwork on my resume (what exactly is the line between embellishing and lying?), a stern word with the moving company, and her own name on my lease, now we’re not only coworkers but also neighbors and best friends. She even adopted the puppy my daughter, Whitney, always wanted.

Sometimes, I don’t know how I got so lucky to be fast friends with such a cool, confident woman. And other times, I wonder if it was all a little too fast, and are we, perhaps, just a little too close? And just what did happen to her coworker Missy, the other woman from our internship?

Last night after Nicola fought with her husband (again), I hesitated too long before offering her a place to stay, and that did not go over well. But maybe it’s for the best. Maybe I need to start setting some boundaries. This morning I woke up determined to hold my own, but wouldn’t you know it, it’s the one morning Whitney and I were running late, and by the time we finally got out to the garage, I found the garage door up.

Weird, right? I would have sworn I shut it last night after my fight with Nicola.

Then when I started to reverse out of the garage, the car tilted to the left, and I saw the flat tire.

Shit shit shit.

But luckily, here comes Nicola, on her way to work at just the right moment. And she’s even magnanimous enough to put our fight behind us and take Whitney to school and me to work, warning me I need to be more careful without Todd here to protect me, and that she’s just glad she was there to help.

And maybe she’s right, or maybe, it’s a little too coincidental that the day after our fight she appears to rescue me and reinforce how ill equipped I am to go this life alone. When the mechanic calls later today with information about what really happened to the tire, a flat might be the least of my worries. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that Nicola needs me to need her and will stop at nothing to make sure that happens.

Come with Me
Genre: Suspense
Release: August 2023
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

Two women. An old friendship rekindled. A growing fear. Not everything is as it seems in a dark and twisty novel of suspense by the Edgar Award–winning author of Deer Season.

Gwen Maner is a widowed single mom, returning to her Ohio hometown with her daughter. And thanks to former acquaintance Nicola Kimmel, this is the start of Gwen’s new and promising life.

Nicola’s secured Gwen a lucrative job, rented Gwen a house on her same street, and won the heart of Gwen’s daughter, but she almost seems too good to be true. She’s so selfless. So charismatic. And so take-charge. Gwen is sure Nicola is yearning only for someone to get close to. After all, according to Nicola, her marriage is falling apart, and her best friend just up and left one day.

But how well does Gwen really know Nicola? What does Nicola ultimately want? As their lives become more entwined, and Nicola’s grip tightens, Gwen begins to think that Nicola isn’t helping Gwen and her daughter but vying for control of every aspect of her life. And the consequences may be deadly.

Meet the author
Erin Flanagan is the author of two story collections and three novels including Deer Season, winner of the 2022 Edgar for Best First Novel, and the most recent Come with Me. She is an English professor at Wright State University and a regular book reviewer for Publishers Weekly. For more information about her and her writing, please visit erinflanagan.net or say hello on Twitter and Instagram at @erinlflanagan.

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