The Verdict Was Written First

An anonymous manuscript describes her closest friend's murder-with Evelyn standing beside the body. It is dated eleven days from now.

When editor Evelyn Ward receives the manuscript, she recognises a conversation she had the night before. The words are private. Almost exact.

Then she turns to the final page.

Her friend Naomi is dead. The object beside her body is something Evelyn gave her. And Evelyn's fictional counterpart is answering questions from the police.

Naomi urges her to report it. It is sensible advice from the woman who helped her through a broken marriage and her father's death.

But explaining the manuscript means answering questions Evelyn has avoided for seventeen years.

Back then, another friend died in a car crash. Evelyn gave the police an account that protected someone she loved-and blamed someone who could never answer back.

There is one thing she claimed to have seen.

She didn't.

As Evelyn searches for the sender, she begins to fear what the manuscript could make other people believe about her. Every question strains a friendship she has built her life around. Every answer brings her closer to admitting what she did.

If she finally tells the truth about that night, who will believe her about what happens next?

The Verdict Was Written First is a psychological thriller about a friendship sustained by a lie-and what it costs to stop protecting it.