Five friends. One deadly obsession.

The salt-scented quadrangles of St Andrews University greet misfit first-year student Finn Nethercott with indifference. It is a place where privilege counts, and those from the right backgrounds can get away with murder.

Finn is quickly seduced into a new circle of friends – four history scholars obsessed with the deepest roots of ancient Scotland – who sweep him away on wild adventures to forgotten castles and faerie lochs.

But he soon discovers the darker sides of his new friends: deadly rivalries, midnight rituals, and a desperate search for a long-lost hallucinogen. And as Finn sinks into a world where he can’t always trust what he’s seen each night, the group will learn just how deadly obsession can be…

A shocking fever-dream of a thriller perfect for fans M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains, Ashley Winstead’s In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Ellie Keel’s The Four.

'I was blown away by this visceral roar of a novel: erudite, pacy and deeply moving. Think The Secret History on acid. Beautifully written and impossible to put down.' J.S. MONROE, author of Find Me and No Place to Hide

'When We Were Killers is a splintered gem of a book. Dark Academia at its seductive, shadowy best.' MATTHEW HARFFY

'A stylish and darkly evocative thriller that it had me racing through the pages to reach the brilliant and unsettling conclusion.' RUTH HOGAN