Female friendships can be closer and more intense than romances. Women can be the most loyal and the most vicious in defence of one another and enduring female friendships get us through the hardest of times. We develop these close relationships through sharing mutual life experiences, from our first days at school, university or work, to the antenatal groups that get us through early motherhood. Female friends can be therapists, staunch defenders, cheerleaders and partners in crime.
But when things go wrong, oh boy! The ending of a close female friendship can be more crippling and more brutal than the ending of a romantic one, yet this is not generally acknowledged.
When friendship turns to enmity, women can be enormously underhand and creative in their cruelty. Even the ancient Greeks knew that when a woman turns to vengeance it can be shockingly scorched earth (see Euripedes’ Medea).
Consequently, female friendships are rich material for novelists writing thrillers. How could they not be?
My own novel, Little Rumours, deals with three women living in a small Devon village, their relationships to one another and to others. When one of their children goes missing, rumours swirl that one of them, at least, knows why.
But mine is only the latest in a run of thrillers focused on female friendships. Here are some of my favourites:
From Ruth Ware, who writes brilliant thrillers, The Lying Game, is a novel about four women who haven’t seen one another in years, but who literally drop everything to reunite when one of them sends a text: I need you. Secrets and lies surrounding their youth in a boarding school in the marshes come to light when a dead body is discovered. Has one of them broken the rules of the lying game (lie to everyone else but not to one another)?
Claire McGowan’s The Other Wife, is, like Little Rumours, told from the points of view of three very different women whose lives have been or are being controlled by terrible men. But their own secrets mean these women are stronger than anyone realised.
Cass Green is another of my favourite writers. The Woman Next Door was her debut adult thriller and is told from the point of view of neighbours Hester, a lonely and obsessive older woman, and Melissa, a young mother with a teenaged daughter. When something terrible happens, Melissa is forced to turn to Hester for help. But Hester is not the kind of person you want on your side.
Sarah Naughton is a wonderful writer, who creates characters that completely draw you in (did you read Tattletale?). In The Festival she writes about four friends, who were close in school but have since drifted apart. When one of them turns 40, they go to a festival in their old hometown to celebrate and recapture their youth. But as always, things are not as they seem and not all the women will leave the festival alive.
My final choice is Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, which tells the story of a group of women, who like those in Little Rumours are forced together by the school gates. But these friends come together to face the world head on, and deal with an issue of school bullying that has its roots in something so much worse. For a change, a thriller about women united, rather than divided. A murder, secrets coming to light and twists and turns make it a tense and unputdownable thriller.
Little Rumours by Bryony Pearce (Harper Collins) Out Now
It started with a rumour. But rumours can be deadly... In a small town, three mothers wave goodbye to their children at the school gates. Naomi has lived in Exton Cross since she was born, and she knows everything there is to know about everyone. Aleema hates it here. It's been three years and she's yet to make a single friend. And she's sure the other mums whisper about her behind her back. Kelly is an outsider. New to the town, she arrives with nothing but her son - and a dark secret. By the end of the school day, one of their children will be missing. And rumours will swirl that one of them knows why...
You can find Bryony Pearce on Twitter @BryonyPearce and on Instagram @BryonyPearce. She can also be found on Facebook.
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