'The novelist displays an almost uncanny ability to enter the skins of her troubled young protagonists.' New York Times

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other - they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet - a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

The Pact paints an indelible portrait of families in anguish, culminating in an astonishingly suspenseful courtroom drama as Chris finds himself on trial for murder.

'This psychologically shrewd tale is as suspenseful as any bestselling legal thriller . . . she forges a finely honed, commanding and cathartic drama.' Booklist