Another book that will transfer well to screen...
My review, on this occasion, contains slight spoilers…
Having written my own piece about a ‘Murder Mystery’ weekend
event that goes wrong, I was drawn to this for that reason alongside the
concept of a ‘And Then There Were None’ style tale set on an island (just like
Agatha Christie did). Only here, the characters attend as part of a writer’s
retreat. As a big fan of locked room style novels, the concept of the island
was a big plus for me. I am also an escape room fan and there were some great
scenes along these lines too.
The mysteriousness of the visit in Christie’s novel is similar
to the mystery of who has really invited the authors to the island. It is, J.R.
Alastor. Despite being a well-published author, nobody knows his real name, yet…
In this novel, Mila (an events organiser) gets a message
from the mystery man asking her to help host a murder mystery event on his
island. He wants to invite peers - six other authors who have all been
successful within the crime/mystery/thriller genre.
Mila accepts the job for a specific reason, but things
quickly descend into chaos.
I really enjoyed the Cluedo concept and can appreciate how
much thought must have gone into laying all the false trails and breadcrumbs
that readers will, undoubtedly, follow. The use of foreboding/foreshadowing gives
you a hint of what’s coming, however, I fell for the numerous red herrings and
did not solve the case successfully. A stunning debut by Pliego and something I
would enjoy watching on television.
There are multiple perspectives shown and (something I
really appreciated) the serial killer has a voice too – clever!
My only issue with this was the disruptions to the Kindle
version as there were some pieces of text that were not where they should
be/font sizes different to others and – as this book has some interesting
features – it was sometimes hard to tell what was there in error/what was meant
to be there.
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