ARC Review: Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West

Making Friends Can Be Murder 
Author: Kathleen West
Publication: Berkley (June 10, 2025)

Description: Thirty-year-old Sarah Jones gets caught up solving a murder after unknowingly befriending a dangerous con artist (who’s nothing like what she seems) in this playful, twisty mystery from acclaimed author Kathleen West.

It feels like kismet when Sarah Jones, newly relocated to Minneapolis after abruptly calling off her engagement, gets invited to join a group of women who share her same (very common) name. For years Sarah has received all types of correspondence intended for different Sarah Joneses, but now it seems that this mistake has given her the opportunity for an instant community.

What starts as a low-stakes meet-up called “The Sarah Jones Project” soon turns sinister when another local Sarah Jones is found dead, under suspicious circumstances, at the base of the downtown Minneapolis bridge. After fielding numerous calls from concerned loved ones ruling out their Sarah as the victim, the surviving Sarahs decide to take matters into their own hands.

Aided by the dead woman’s nanny, a newly commissioned (and very handsome and eligible) FBI agent, and a cloistered nun with a complicated past, the motley crew of unlikely friends are determined to get to the bottom of the murder of one of their own.

My Thoughts: Seventeen-year-old Sarah Jones conceives of The Sarah Jones Project as a way of redeeming herself at her Catholic High School after some episodes of cyberbullying. She recruits five other Sarah Jones of various ages from 69 to her own 17. They get together, get to know each other, and plan an event which gives them newspaper recognition. 

Among the Sarah Jones are a pair of elementary school teachers who teach next door to each other, a new transplant to Minneapolis, and a nanny who is working for still another Sarah Jones who isn't part of the group. 

The transplant, 30 to distinguish her from the others, and 27 who is the nanny become best friends. But all is not well. 27 is a con woman who is in town to con money from her boss and 30 to pay to drug dealers who are threatening her young brother. 

But things go fatally wrong when Fed Sarah, 27's boss, falls from a Minneapolis bridge and dies. It's murder. And 27 is somehow involved. 

Then there is new FBI Special Agent George Nightingale who has requested assignment in Minneapolis and is put on the fraud squad. His assignment is to get close to 30 in order to find evidence to convict 27 of fraud. He doesn't expect to fall for 30. Nor does he expect to find himself in a murder investigation. 

George has a reason to leave his family business - a summer camp in Northern Minnesota - and join the FBI. When he was in fifth grade, his best friend Henry disappeared with George being the last to see him alive. The case remains unsolved, and George is determined to finally solve it. Coincidentally, 30's mother who died when 30 was eleven was a counselor at the camp for three summers.

This was an engaging story filled with interesting characters. I liked the way the story was told. There were multiple viewpoints with 17's being the one that provides the framework detailing how a social project goes from a yarn-bombing to solving a murder. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.