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Five stars all the way, – for creativity, ingenuity, and cleverness, if for nothing else. But there is so much else!

This, the third book authored by one of this reader’s favorite thriller writers, is narrated in the first person by a character like no other – the self-reflective, verbose, contradictory, unsettling, and all-too-often seemingly unreliable enigma that is Elliot Chase.

Elliot is a playwright, a fortyish unmarried and often maligned side-kick to the infinitely beautiful movie-star Lana Farrah. Elliot has no qualms about sharing, (with the reader), a deep and eternal love for Lana – stemming from his broken-childhood-based adoration of her silver screen presence, and despite her ongoing infatuation with her handsome husband Jason.

When Lana invites a party of loves (husband Jason, and her seventeen year old son, Leo); friends (Elliot, along with Lana’s best friend, theatre-actress Kate); and staff (strange and reclusive island-caretaker Nikos, and Lana’s housekeeper slash confidante Agathi); to join her at her secluded (windy and perhaps cursed) Greek island for a much needed sunny break, the stage is set for the twistiest murder plot ever to grace the pages.

Written with charm and twists and a playfully obtuse take on slowly-revealing truth, Elliot drops and re-drops details and events of the story he tells, – back-tracking, revisiting, footnoting and re-framing complex characters as fiendishly engaging as those starring in any play he is likely to have written.

A rare treat, this is a refreshingly original take on a familiar genre – murder mystery on a secluded exotic island – that, if you are at all like this reader – will delight, perplex and entertain.

A great big thank you to the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.