“You’re safe, Stride. I found the body at the Deeps. I buried him.”
Jonathan Stride’s best friend, Steve Garske, makes a shocking deathbed confession: he protected Stride by covering up a murder. Hours later, the police dig up Steve’s yard and find a body with a bullet hole in its skull.
Stride is pretty sure he knows who it is. Seven years ago, an out-of-town reporter disappeared while investigating anonymous allegations of rape against a prominent politician. Back then, the police believed that the reporter drowned at a dangerous swimming hole called the Deeps … but the discovery of the body changes everything. Now Stride’s partner, Maggie Bei, is forced to ask Stride an uncomfortable question: Did you kill him?
Stride is obviously hiding things. He was the last person to see the reporter alive. And he admits lying to Maggie about that meeting, but won’t tell her why. With suspicion in the murder pointing at him, Stride finds himself off the case and on leave from the Duluth Police.
His only ally in clearing his name is his wife, Serena, who retraces the reporter’s investigation into the explosive allegations. The clues all point to a hot Duluth summer years earlier that everyone in town would prefer to forget.
Someone was willing to kill rather than let those long-ago secrets come out, and the suspect with the strongest motive … is Stride.
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“Funeral for a Friend traverses a literary tightrope that few authors can manage: the novel works equally well as a stand-alone for a first-time reader, or as part of the fuller Stride canon for his longtime fans…As always, Freeman’s characters here are as developed as his plot, and even if this is your first foray into the Stride universe you’ll come to know Serena, Stride, Cat, Maggie and others as family.”
— Mountain Times
“Brian Freeman proves once again he’s a master of psychological suspense.”
— Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on Spilled Blood“This guy can tell a story.”
— Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author“The most literate and stylish writing you’ll find anywhere today.”
— Jeffery Deaver, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on Immoral“Brian Freeman is a first-rate storyteller. Stalked is scary, fast-paced, and refreshingly well written. The characters are so sharply drawn and interesting, we can’t wait to meet the next one in the story.”
— Nelson DeMille, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on Stalked“My discovery this year has been crime writer Brian Freeman…Fleshed-out characters, high tension, and terrifying twists put him up there with Harlan Coben in the psychological crime stratosphere.”
— Daily Mail (London)“[Stride] is in the company of Bosch, Thorne, Tennison, and Skinner, some of my other favorite detectives time has not mellowed.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune, praise for the series“Excellent…A cleverly constructed, page-turning plot and fleshed-out primary and secondary characters make this a winner.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Alter Ego“Freeman skillfully weaves together diverse story lines…with twists that build suspense, in this fine, character-driven addition to a strong series.”
— Booklist (starred review) on Goodbye to the Dead“If there is a way to say ‘higher’ than ‘highly recommended,’ I wish I knew it. Because this is one of those thrillers that go above and beyond.”
— Suspense Magazine on Goodbye to the Dead“A fast-paced and riveting drama that I could not put down until the last sentence was read…The best book in this grippingly thrilling series.”
— Dru Ann’s Book Musing (Raven Award Winner) on Marathon“Deftly plotted…Fans of grittier crime novels should be satisfied.”
— Publishers Weekly“Funeral for a Friend is by far Brian Freeman’s most emotional novel, and to say that the ending is a wild one would be a gross understatement. Jonathan Stride is one of the more complex and therefore likable characters in crime fiction, and this latest entry in the series is a clear standout.”
— Bookreporter“I would compare [Brian Freeman] easily with Michael Connelly…A true master of storytelling, this novelist has now become one of my go-to authors when I’m looking for an engaging, world-stopping distraction in book form.”
— Midwest Book Review“Brian Freeman writes the best kind of psychological procedurals. His characters struggle with the moral consequences of the crimes they investigate, and his plots are as twisty and fast-moving as Lake Superior’s undertow.”
— Minneapolis Star TribuneBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Brian Freeman is a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of psychological thrillers, including the Jonathan Stride series and many popular standalones. His books have been sold in forty-six countries and translated into twenty-three languages. His thriller Spilled Blood was named Best Hardcover Novel in the International Thriller Writers Awards, and his novel The Deep, Deep Snow was a finalist for the Edgar Award. Brian is widely acclaimed for his vivid “you are there” settings and for his complex, engaging characters and twist-filled plots. He lives in Florida with his wife, Marcia. For more information, visit BFreemanBooks.com.
Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.