Absent Friends

Jimmy. Markie. Vicky. Sally. Tom. Jack. Marian. Their friendships are strong, and their futures bright—until one shattering night that changes everything. Two of the friends will die young. The others will be left to pick up the pieces in the shadow of a past that still echoes with hopes and regrets. And one—Jimmy, a firefighter—will die a hero twenty years later when the Twin Towers fall. But it is the suicide of a reporter and a colleague’s search for answers in the aftermath of a horrifying tragedy that will finally penetrate their silence. . . . For as the story of that night begins to unwind, a tangle of secret relationships and personal demons is exposed—until the truth erupts with stunning force.

S. J. Rozan is the author of the acclaimed novel Absent Friends in addition to eight novels in the Edgar, Shamus, Nero, Macavity, and Anthony awards-winning Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, including Winter and Night, which won the Edgar, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry awards. Born and raised in the Bronx, Rozan is an architect in a New York firm and lives in Greenwich Village, where she is at work on her next novel of suspense.