Tartt told the interviewer that The Little Friend was intentionally different from The Secret History, stating: "I wanted to take on a completely different set of technical problems.

Only nine years old at the time of his death, Robin's murder causes his mother, Charlotte, to sink into a listless depression and his father, Dixon, to abandon the family on the pretext of work.

Harriet's fascination with her brother's death leads her to decide to find the murderer with the reluctant help of her younger but devoted friend, a boy, Hely Hull.

Farish, not a particularly intelligent man, is planning a drug shipment hidden within a truck transporting venomous snakes, which another brother, Eugene, uses to support his Evangelical preaching.

After a near disastrous encounter with the Ratliffs when the brothers attempt to transport the drugs, Harriet and Hely manage to steal the cobra from Eugene's office.

They proceed to drop the snake into the Trans Am from an abandoned road bridge but discover that the car was driven not by Danny but by his grandmother, Gum, who is severely bitten and hospitalized.

The Ratliffs deduce that Harriet had been involved in the attack and seek her out after she returns early from summer camp following the death of her favourite great-aunt.

Harriet, who has been coincidentally practicing holding her breath, pretends to drown but is able to escape when the non-swimming Danny falls back into the water.

Christianity is referenced throughout the book in the form of snake handling preachers, Baptists, and Mormonism, as well as an epigraph attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas.

The snake-handling preacher from Kentucky, Loyal Reese, represents a form of cheating death with his numerous boxes of venomous snakes and his preaching style.

The magazine's critical summary reads: "The Little Friend reconfirms Tartt’s rare talents as “a born storyteller” (Boston Globe)".

[3] ReviewofBooks said on the critics consensus, "The publisher, Random House, declares, "The Little Friend explores crime and punishment, as well as the hidden complications and consequences that hinder the pursuit of truth and justice".

Franklin highlighted Tartt's literary "obsess[ion] with crimes that go unpunished,"[6] while Scott described the book as "tragic, fever-dream realism.