Kimberley King has spent the last five years trying to outrun the reason she left the police force. Her life is a mess and she's desperate for change. So when she is randomly selected for the new series of the hit show LoveWrecked, she can't pass up the chance to win the £100,000 prize. All Kimberley needs to do is couple up with one of her fellow contestants, win the infamous LoveWrecked challenges, and she will have enough cash for a fresh start.
But the island isn't the paradise she was promised and within hours, one of the contestants is dead. Then the announcement comes: one of the islanders is a murderer and Kimberley must find out who, live on television. For every hour it takes her, one more person will die.
The game is rigged, everyone is hiding secrets, and time is running out...
Title: The Islanders
Author: S.V. Leonard
Publisher: Canelo Crime
Publication date: March 11, 2021
REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
It is not a secret (basically cause I repeat it every chance I get) that And then there were none is my favorite book ever, so you can imagine my level of excitement when I learnt about The Islanders, a modern retake on the classic mixed with one of the biggest guilty pleasures nowadays, reality TV. I knew this was gonna be a winner and I wasn't wrong. In fact, this book got me out of the reading slump the last couple of books I read had put me in. When I read a book in less than a day that's always a good sign!
Kimberly King is randomly selected along a group of strangers to participate in the new series of LoveWrecked, one of the most popular reality tv competitions. With no job on the horizon and lots of bills to pay she can't say no the offer, so there she goes to a greek island where the show will be shot. But trouble comes knocking into paradise when soon after arriving her fellow contestants start dying one by one and what promised to be the experience of a lifetime turns into the EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME (that might be cut short, both the experience and the lifetime).
Locked room murder mysteries are my favorite kind and this one was not the exception. What an absolute page turner! I found it impossible to stop reading. The writing was really engaging and it's hard to believe this was just a debut novel. Kim was a very sympathetic character and you couldn't help wanting her to solve the murders, but not so much so people stopped dying but so she didn't add more blame to her shoulders. The rest of the characters were pretty unlikeable so that made it even more fun when they met their untimely end. All the countdowns to solve the murders really added to the tension.
I loved, loved, loved all the nods to Agatha Christie and her novel (the judge!), and let's be honest, you can't go wrong when you draw inspiration from the Queen of Crime herself!
The ending was really satisfying and I loved how we got little bits of information ahead of the big reveal so we could start putting everything together before the killer's unveiling.
Exciting and fast paced debut with all the ingredients for locked room murder mystery lovers to have a fantastic time. The author dedicates the book "to my Gran, who loved whodunits", and after reading it I can say she would be proud of this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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