3 Compulsively Readable Thrillers

This tale of deceit begins with our favorite premise: Four besties meet to swap gossip at the local coffee shop. There's Julie, a high-energy real estate broker; Sarah, a lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mom who drinks too much; lonely, work-from-home Alison; and beautiful Heather, a former model who is married to a prominent surgeon. Before we can settle into a cozy, suburban comedy of manners, things turn sinister. Heather has mysterious bruises, and Alison, who survived abuse as a child, is convinced that her friend is a victim of domestic violence. After all, the surgeon's first wife died in an "accident," didn't she? The group convenes behind Heather's back, first to snoop and then to meddle—with consequences that go horribly awry. As in a dead body (not Heather's) and blackmail. Everyone here is keeping an unsavory secret, and no one knows whom, or what, to trust. "This is the problem with doubt," Alison says. "Once a little seed has been planted, it burrows deep into your darkest thoughts and takes root." Just Between Us winds its roller-coaster plot around our tendency to see exactly what we are looking for—while our little lies take on dangerous lives of their own.