The new gripping and witty thriller from the author of You'd Look Better as a Ghost, winner of the Crime Fiction Lover Best Debut Novel 2023.

'Motherland meets Girl on the Train' - WOMAN & HOME 'A fresh new voice in crime fiction' - JANICE HALLETT 'A tragicomic banger' - HARRIET TYCE The school run can be murder... Beth is having a bad day. Her husband has left her. Her fellow school mums judge her. And now she's stuck in A&E after her son fell off the climbing wall on the first day of school. In fact, it's been nothing but bad days since her best friend Charlotte died in a tragic accident, hit by a car while out jogging. But when Beth learns that Charlotte's toddler was left home alone that night, she begins to question why her friend would do something so uncharacteristically irresponsible. Was Charlotte's death an accident? It's time for Beth to discover what really happened. Once she's put the kids to bed, of course... 'Darkly funny and deftly plotted' - ALICE CLARK-PLATTS 'Riotously funny and searingly observed' - KATE SIMANTS 'You'll never look at school-gate parents the same way again' - D.V. BISHOP

"A compelling story of complex relationships, subterfuge and mystery... So intriguing I couldn't put it down" - My Weekly

"Funny but heart-rending... Even at her most chaotic, Beth is lovely, and her methods of investigating Charlotte's death are wholly original" - Literary Review

"Another superb blend of dark humour and intriguing mystery from Joanna Wallace... An atmosphere of tension and danger permeates The Dead Friend Project even as the gallows humour flows thick and fast" - Crime Fiction Lover

"Well-written, ably-plotted... Works well as a novel, and fairly well as a mystery" - Critic