A debut thriller about a woman who is trying to escape the past and the horrific event she witnessed at the prestigious journalism school she attended.

Nine years ago, with the world’s eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called her a “witness” to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school—though Charlie knows she was much more than that—but, eventually, they left her alone. Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She’s the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, the fiancée of the heir of a publishing dynasty, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy movie about the events of that night 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 get in her way.

But Charlie shouldn’t have let her guard down. Suddenly, “Scarlet Christmas“—named for the bloody scene paramedics stumbled across on Christmas Eve at the prestigious Carroll University—is being adapted for film, with Charlie’s classmates promising the public that this time, they’ll get to find out what really happened. With everything at stake, Charlie must decide how far she’ll go to stop the past that haunts her from colliding with her shiny present.

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (February 6, 2024)
• ISBN-13: 978-1250890849