The Fifth Letter cover art

The Fifth Letter

A gripping novel of friendship and secrets from the bestselling author of The Ex-Girlfriend

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty, read by Natasha Jacobs.

Four friends. Five Letters. One Secret.
A scandalous breakthrough novel from Nicola Moriarty that will leave you asking, how well do I really know my friends?

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden.

Best friends since the first day of school. Best friends, they liked to say, forever.

But now they are in their thirties and real life - husbands, children, work - has got in the way. So, resurrecting their annual trip away, Joni has an idea, something to help them reconnect.

Each woman will write an anonymous letter, sharing with their friends the things that are really going on in their lives.

But as the confessions come tumbling out, Joni starts to feel the certainty of their decades-long friendships slip from her fingers.

Anger. Accusations. Desires. Deceit.

And then she finds another letter. One that was never supposed to be read. A fifth letter. Containing a secret so big that its writer had tried to destroy it. And now Joni is starting to wonder, did she ever really know her friends at all?

 Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Genre Fiction Romance Romantic Comedy Romantic Suspense Women's Fiction Fiction Comedy Suspense

Critic reviews

Dramatic, mysterious and compelling . . . it's easy to read this book in one sitting
Younger sister Nicola gives novelists Liane and Jaclyn Moriarty a serious run for the literary awards in this pacey, circle-of-friends thriller, which accelerates in its intensity and sheer originality with every page . . . An Agatha Christie Mousetrap of a "who-wrote-it?" to solve
The premise in this third novel from one of the clever Moriarty sisters is irresistible . . . You'll be hard pressed not to giggle and compare these girls to your own besties
Page-turning mystery
It's hard not to get roped into this delightfully twisted tale of suspicion and mystery intertwined with a frank look at how relationships evolve and sometimes become obsolete. Moriarty has a knack for making you feel like one of the girls, compelling you to solve the mystery of the author of the fifth letter
The brilliant unraveling of this sisterhood of secrets will leave you wondering how well you really know the best friends you've known forever. A must-read before your next Girl's Night (Mary Hogan)
Lifelong friendships, secrets, and pages I couldn't turn fast enough. The Fifth Letter is one of my favorite books this year, and Nicola Moriarty is now on my short list of favorite women's fiction authors (Susan Elizabeth Phillips)
Readers . . . will race to the end as a credit to Nicola's fine sense of pacing and suspense. An author to watch (Tracy Babiasz)
The meandering stories of these women are held together with the powerful question of who wrote the last letter, which reveals just how precarious childhood friendships are . . . the book adeptly exposes the striking differences among the four friends and the five letters
A delightful, heartwarming exploration of the twists and turns of true friendship, The Fifth Letter was simply delicious from the very first page to the last. Relatable characters, a fast-moving plot and just the right amount of mystery. I was hooked! (Rachael Johns)
All stars
Most relevant
I found this difficult to follow at times due to the way the narrator read it. Who was saying what, the variations between the dates and stories (it jumped back and forward). The story was good but I think reading the book and seeing the punctuation etc would have made it easier to follow.

Probably better to read the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting concept of a plot, but felt as though I was having to listen to perennial teenagers bickering.
I kept wanting the storyline to tie up lose ends as I tried to persevere through the ghastly Australian narrator.
In the end I gave up more confused and very unsatisfied.

Meandering and annoying

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Badly written, poorly thought out story about four irritating whining self-centred Australian women - read by a woman with an excruciatingly whining voice with no vocal range.

Irritatingly dreadful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.