The Little Friend (2002) is a Southern Gothic novel by Donna Tartt. Twelve-year-old protagonist Harriet Dufresnes, who lives in the small town of Alexandria, Mississippi, becomes obsessed with her brother Robin’s unsolved murder and her family’s mythical lost fortune and happiness. This coming-of-age novel traces Harriet’s attempts to discover and murder Robin’s killer, all while grappling with loss, revisionist history, secrets, and social tensions based on race, class, and gender. Donna Tartt became a success when her debut novel, The Secret History, was published in 1992. The Little Friend is her second novel, and it won the WH Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.