What if everything you know about the worst night of your life turns out not to be true?
Murder.
Nine years ago, with the world’s eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a “witness” to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve—events known to the public as “Scarlet Christmas”—though Charlie knows she was much more than that.
Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She’s the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie’s former classmates threatens to shatter everything she’s worked for, Charlie realizes how much she’s changed in nine years. Now, she’s not going to let anything—not even the people she once loved most—get in her way.
Don't just take our word for it...
“As twisty a thriller as you’re likely to read this year, a propulsive dive into the dark secrets we keep buried, even from ourselves, and the lengths to which we will go to keep it there.”
— BookTrib
” Witty, tightly plotted, knife-sharp, and utterly immersive, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead had me flaking on plans to squeeze in one more chapter. Fans of Jessica Knoll and Megan Miranda, meet your new favorite author.”
– Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Spare Room
“Jenny Hollander has written an intoxicatingly sharp thriller. Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead deftly explores trauma and the dark things we believe ourselves capable of. I never wanted to stop reading it, and I can’t wait for Hollander’s next novel.”
– Clémence Michallon, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant
Taste the very first page
Dr. Nazari’s Office, Seven Years Earlier
Everyone who was there, or pretends they were there, says the same thing: the tabloids got it wrong. But they didn’t, not really.
The articles said: Charlotte Colbert escaped unscathed. Which is true. While the others were in surgery or stretched out in the morgue, I was in the shower, scrubbing their blood from my neck and shoulders. The others were carried out; I walked out—or, more accurately, according to the photos, I was walked out, a paramedic hooked under each arm.
But I don’t remember it. Which is why I’m here, as it happens.
They wrote: There were no signs. That’s true, too, unless you knew what you were looking for. Which I didn’t. I was twenty-three, for God’s sake, charmed and clumsily in love. I didn’t know shit.
They wrote, gleefully, about the bloody handprints on the white walls, the crack as the body—bodies—struck the ground. The reams of ivy that clung to the hundred-year-old building. True. True. True.
(That fucking ivy has nothing to do with anything. But this was never a story about murder, was it? Not for them. It was about pedigreed kids with blue eyes and Carroll University School of Journalism’s six- figure price tag. The death toll, that was a bonus.)
Sometimes they wrote, Charlotte Colbert, victim, and sometimes they wrote, Charlotte Colbert, survivor, like they couldn’t make up their minds.
The first thing you should know, Dr. Nazari, is that neither of those things are true.
You might also like
A Half-Baked Murder
Combining French luxury and THC, Baked by Chloe will take pot brownies to another level. That is, until a creepy past acquaintance rehashes old drama and shockingly turns up dead—landing Aunt Dawn as the number one murder suspect.
Liar, Dreamer, Thief
A young woman’s carefully constructed fantasy world implodes in this brilliantly conceived novel that blurs distinctions between right and wrong, comedy and tragedy, imagination and reality.
The Dream Builders
Written from the perspectives of ten different characters, Oindrila Mukherjee’s incisive debut novel explores class divisions, gender roles, and stories of survival within a society that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly Americanized
The New Life
A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late 19th-century London.
Desert Creatures
In a world that has become treacherous and desiccated, Magdala has always had to fight to survive. At nine years old, she and her father, Xavier, are exiled from their home, fleeing through the Sonoran Desert, searching for refuge.
All the Dark Places
A savage murder rocks a quiet Massachusetts suburb, revealing the dark secrets at the center of a group of friends in this stylish debut thriller for fans of Megan Miranda and Shari Lapena.
Twice in a Lifetime
The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Oona Out of Order in this imaginative and moving debut novel of a love more powerful than time.
None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive
Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.
Aesthetica
In a debut novel as radiant as it is caustic, a former influencer confronts her past—and takes inventory of the damages that underpin the surface-glamour of social media.
Meredith, Alone
Will have you laughing and crying as Meredith, after spending three years inside her house, figures out how to rejoin the world one step at a time.
The Socialite’s Guide to Murder
The hotel was her refuge, but scandal is afoot—and a killer stalks the halls in this charming series debut perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver.
Closer to Okay
Weaving culinary delights with an honest, appraising look at how we deal with the world when it becomes too much, Closer to Okay is the comfort food we all need in these, well, crazy times.
The Other Side of Night
The lives of a disgraced police officer, a prolific author, and an upstanding citizen are inextricably bound together by a series of mysterious deaths.
Singer Distance
The odds of the planet next door hosting intelligent life are—that’s not luck. That’s a miracle. It means something.
The Marsh Queen
Loni must decide whether to delve beneath the surface into murky half-truths and either avenge the past or bury it, once and for all.