We start off right away with a murder, along with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island being assaulted by an "unpredictable Greek wind." Then we are introduced to the players, most importantly movie star, Lana Farrar. We also meet her husband, Jason Miller, her son, Leo, and her friend Kate Crosby, who is also an actress. We learn all about her rise to fame and her older first husband, Otto Krantz, a Hollywood producer. Kate’s career seems to be stalling and Leo’s plans to apply to acting schools, surprisingly...much against his mother’s wishes, and also that Jason has a strong obsession with guns. In bits and pieces, we are told about Elliot's painful childhood; his "May–September" relationship with an older woman writer, who is now dead; his passion for the theater, where he learned to change everything about himself in order to fit in. He isn't in every chapter, but he still manages to convey every piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he was and was capable of accessing the perspective of all the characters. When we reach the climax, we find that there is a shooting...a motive...and of course, the story twist. The story mostly takes place on this wild Greek island and echoes the Greek classic's tragedies. The emotions and the tragedy make us question the entire idea of it being merely fate. The author seemed at times, to be slipping into the world of Edgar Allan Poe. I can't say that the book is especially a thriller, but in the end, it does present an interesting mystery, but I found that it had more style than actual substance. Still, worth the time to read. ( )

this book does not AT ALL end how you think it will. i LOVED how reading this felt like listening to some old guy tell you a story from his past that may or may not be true. ( )

One of my very favorite things is an unreliable narrator. ( )

Disappointing thriller by the so-called master of the twist. Interesting setting and idea – opens with a murder of a famous retired movie actress on a self-owned Greek island (which turns out to be a scene rather than reality).

But after this promising opening the thriller gets into a doctored plot in five acts of which four are written from the POV of the main narrator (Elliott, a close friend of the actress Lana and a deep fraud himself). When Jason, the husband of Lana Farrar, engages in a relationship with Kate, Lana’s bff, Elliot comes up with a scheme to have Kate and Jason exposed, hoping that he will win Lana over to be his wife. It does not happen the way it has been doctored and instead Elliot ends up being exposed as a bully and stalker, but then a murder occurs which ultimately lands Elliot in prison.

So, so boring. Too doctored, and as a reader one knows this from the very start. This is the second disappointing thriller that I read from this much hyped writer. It is probably also the last one I’ll take on. No more. ( )

“This is a tale of murder.” “This is a story for anyone who has ever loved…”

“There were seven of us in all, trapped on the island.
One of us was a murderer.”
“…it’s a whydunit - a character study, an examination of who we are; and why we do the things we do.”

Though the narrator explains his omniscient point of view on page six, it is still hard to believe it as the story unfolds. He can’t possibly know the things he relates no matter what methods he uses. And it really feels like an Agatha Christie/Patricia Highsmith plot(s), both of whom the author recognizes on the first page of his Acknowledgements. As well he should...

(The Epilogue has a bit of a treat to the readers of the author's first two books) ( )