My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: Forge Books
I love Agatha Christie so this was a must read as soon as I'd heard about it. As this is a modern retelling of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None there's no question how this was going to end and I still couldn't help pulling for narrator Miriam to make it out alive. She was a dedicated fabulist (for reasons never revealed) and a self-saboteur but I wanted her to find redemption and get to see her daughter again. So silly really but well done by the author, coaxing those feelings out of me.
This was my first read by Howzell Hall and I very much liked her writing style. I laughed out loud. I gasped. I highlighted passages. There were news clippings relating to the individual crimes of each person in the party and I thought those were well done. It gave the un-self-serving version of events the characters were never going to share. There's a lot of scene and mood setting and getting a feel for the seven who make up this morally bankrupt party and it's not until chapter 15 (of 35) that the first murder occurs. I have a peeve about murder mysteries taking a long time to get to the actual murder but as I was already familiar with ATTWN, I was able to mostly overlook it.
In book likes, it reminded me of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood. The lesson continues to be: Just say no to all the secluded location invites. No matter the offer of money or fame, reconnecting with friends or business networking. And for the love of all that's sane, if you find yourself about to make a crossing on a boat called La Charon to stay at a house named Artemis, do not proceed!
Summary:
It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.Delighted by a surprise invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico, with six strangers—an ex-cop, a chef, a financial advisor, a nurse, a lawyer, a young widow.
Surrounded by miles of open water in the gloriously green Sea of Cortez, Miriam is shocked to discover that she and the rest of her companions have been brought to the remote island under false pretenses—and all seven strangers harbor a secret.
Danger lurks in the lush forest and in the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone coverage and miles of ocean keeps the group trapped in paradise. And strange accidents keep them suspicious of each other, as one by one . . .
They all fall down
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