New York Times bestselling author Jennifer McMahon writes a chilling new novel about a group of old friends who once believed things (and perhaps, people) must be taken apart, literally, to be truly understood.

In their final year of college at Sexton University (loosely based on the author s own alma mater -- Goddard College), Henry, Tess, and their misfit friends created The Compassionate Dismantlers - a group that believed the best way to understand something, or someone, was to literally take it apart, breaking it down to see it in its basic parts. The members spend the summer after graduation in a rustic cabin in the woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, sometimes dangerous pranks. The summer of the Compassionate Dismantlers comes to a screeching halt when one project spirals out of control. Their charismatic and increasingly dangerous leader Suz pushes the group further into a plan than they d like to go which eventually leads to her death, an accident the rest of the group tries to bury in the past.

Nine years later, two of the members, Henry and Tess, are married and living an hour s drive from the old cabin with their nine-year-old daughter, Emma, who has a lot of unusual habits and an often unsettling imaginary friend named Danner. Soon, the past comes back to haunt them, figuratively and perhaps literally when one of their old friends, still feeling the effects of that fateful summer, commits suicide after they each receive a mysterious letter in the mail. The death shocks the rest of the group who have tried to forget the darkness they saw those many years ago. Henry and Tess, terrified about the odd events taking place around them and Emma, fall further and further into their guilt and fear, eventually confronting the ghosts of the past head on. Though they may have moved on from their yourth, the past isn t ready to let go. Is there someone who knows the secrets of the Compassionate Dismantlers? Is it possible that Suz did not really die that night -- or, worse still, has she somehow found a way back?

As she did with her breakout hits PROMISE NOT TO TELL and ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS, Jennifer McMahon masterfully builds suspense and combines the excitement of a thriller with the emotion of a family drama. With pitch perfect characters and a gripping plot, DISMANTLED is un-put-downable and sure to please all of McMahon s fans.