Publication Date: August 18, 2026
A dark, deadly secret between two friends tears them apart, only to reunite them decades later as they are forced to confront what happened that night . . . or lose all they hold dear.
She keeps me safe. She keeps me wild.
Carly Rivers and Dana Lee were best friends when they were younger. Like fire and water, they always balanced each other out: Dana kept them wild. Carly kept them safe.
But then, a split-second decision resulted in an irreversible tragedy. To this day, neither has spoken of what happened; they share a terrible secret that sent them on separate paths, each hoping to leave the darkness behind them. Carly becomes a police officer in Florida with a beautiful house and a beautiful husband and son. For Dana, things go the other way. After a string of failed relationships and broken hearts, she finds herself in Black Ash, Michigan, working for the notorious meth dealer Warner Prince.
When Carly’s husband, also a cop, is killed in the line of duty, her son, Anthony, spins out of control. In search of his own fresh start, Anthony heads to Toledo, a stone’s throw from Dana’s home in Black Ash. As Anthony’s friendship with Dana puts him in the crosshairs of some sinister people, Dana’s and Carly’s lives come together again. Twenty-four years have passed, but the secret between them hasn’t died, and the friends soon find themselves in a situation where history is doomed to repeat itself.
Brimming with action and suspense, and tempered with a strong emotional core, Rio Youers’s gripping new novel is an intense, edge-of-your-seat story about fierce friendship, the bonds of family, and the extremes we’ll go to, to keep our loved ones safe.
Two friends, bound by a tragic secret, have spent more than two decades apart, living separate paths.
Their lives once again intersect in a powerful thriller by Rio Youers. What They Did is a masterful story of fierce friendship and sacrifice.
Two sides of the same coin, yet one bears a “she keeps me wild” tattoo while the other sports a “she keeps me safe” tattoo. Carly and Dana have both tried to outrun the past.
Now, as their lives once again intersect, Dana’s carefully crafted world threatens to explode at the hands of Carly’s rebellious son. With the line between right and wrong clearly drawn, family and friendship get put to the test.
As with previous books, Youers weaves a complex story revolving around richly developed characters.
What They Did pits two friends on a collision course for a repeat of the past, but this time around, there’s collateral damage.
Rio Youers is the British Fantasy and Sunburst Award–nominated author of Lola on Fire, No Second Chances, and The Bang-Bang Sisters. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Refrigerator Full of Heads, a six-issue comic series from DC Comics, and Sleeping Beauties, a graphic novel based on the number-one bestseller by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio’s latest novel, What They Did, will be published by William Morrow in summer 2026.
