She has everything to live for—and everything to hide.

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.

Review:

Menacing, unpredictable, and compelling!

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is an intense, mysterious tale that transports you into the life of successful NYC magazine editor and a victim of what the press dubbed “Scarlet Christmas” Charlotte Colbert, as her life gets turned upside down when the surviving twin sister of another victim decides to make a movie to honour the ten-year reunion of the tragedy causing the past to collide with the present, memories to come flooding back, long-buried secrets to be unearthed, and what truly happened on that ill-fated night when six journalism graduate students had their lives changed forever to finally come to light.

The writing is intricate and tight. The characters are scarred, self-involved, and secretive. And the plot, using flashbacks and a back-and-forth, past/present style, intertwines and unravels effortlessly into an ominous tale of manipulation, deception, lies, drama, jealousy, secrets, revelations, obsession, misdirection, mayhem, and murder.

Overall, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is a captivating, sinister, promising debut by Hollander that kept me guessing from the very first page and left me chilled, surprised, and highly entertained.

This novel is available now.

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