THE SUMMER WE LIED
by Rebecca Hardy
Raven/Bloomsbury, Summer 2026
(via Mushens Entertainment)
Then. Bunking off school on a hot summer’s day, three young teenagers hear a brutal double murder. In the confusing aftermath, only two come forward, and one takes the stand, pointing the finger at a respected member of the community, who police seem only too happy to accuse. But did he actually do it, or do all of them have more than one reason to lie?
Now. Almost two decades later, new questions are asked about old evidence, and their part in it all is about to be discovered. Estranged since the trial, the friends are forced back together when a new attack casts doubt on the conviction, and it becomes clear that someone else knows their secret. As their lives and lies start to crumble around them, they are forced at last to confront their own culpability, the secrets they kept from each other, and the traumas that rest at the heart of their silence.
An English teacher for almost twenty years, Rebecca Hardy has recently taken a career break to pursue her love of writing. She lives in East Sussex, with her wife and teenage son, in amongst the fields and hills where her novel begins. A place which is, thankfully, far more tranquil in real life than on the page. THE SUMMER WE LIED is Rebecca’s debut.
The summer before his sophomore year, Horatio Bithersea walks into the university library to find Carson Hamlett, resident golden boy and master magician, cradling his father’s dead body. Life at Elsinore, one of the most prestigious universities in the secretive magical world, simply goes on when the professor’s death is ruled an accident—despite the mysterious circumstances and the bloody scene.