I do like the idea of being invited as a guest on a luxurious island paradise … but not so much without my phone and tech comforts close at hand, especially in the case of an emergency!
Blurb:
A MYSTERIOUS OFFER
When Thea deciphers a cryptic invitation, she can’t believe it’s real. Yet the next moment she’s on a jet, being whisked off to a private Caribbean island.
BUT THIS IS NO ORDINARY HOLIDAY
Her fellow guests are richer than rich – billionaires, tech bros, even royalty; all in paradise to sign a global deal. So what is Thea doing here?
THERE IS NO ESCAPE
By the morning, their host is dead – and so is any hope of getting off the island.
NO GETAWAY
As guests are picked off one by one, the group’s suspicions turn on Thea.
ONLY A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
But the killer isn’t the only threat on the island – and escape means facing her worst fears . . .
My Review:
What’s better than a locked-room thriller? A locked-room thriller set on a luxurious, completely isolated Caribbean island!
Thea Harrington KC is celebrating the biggest win of her career. She realises how life-changing this is for her as she arrives home, contemplating her options for the future, including the choices she needs to face regarding her increasingly distant husband, Charles. But when she discovers there is a cryptic gift waiting for her, all of her previous thoughts are quickly forgotten as she tries to decipher its clues.
Once she does, she finds herself quickly whisked away to a private island as the guest of the wealthy and influential Olga Helgesdotter. She is surprised to find that her fellow guests are some of the world’s wealthiest and most prominent individuals, including a model, a singing sensation, an obnoxious royal and, most surprisingly, her husband! Thea finds herself at a loss as to why she’s been included in this elite group. When their host enlightens them as to why they’re all there, things get more than a little intense!! Even more surprising is their willingness to part with their smart phones as soon as they arrive!
Olga has invited this illustrious group together because she wants them to commit to a pledge: that they will contribute half of their collective, considerable wealth towards the fight for climate change. There’s a journalist (conveniently) on standby to compile a press release of the momentous moment when they all reach an agreement … and she’s quite sure they will all agree because she makes it very clear that if they don’t, she can make life rather uncomfortable for those who choose not to comply. But Olga, wanting to appear magnanimous, says she’ll allow them to consider her ‘offer’ overnight before a ‘sign or decline’ event the following morning.
Thea is still trying to figure out why she’s been summoned together with this group into which she surely doesn’t fit. And when morning arrives and she discovers Olga’s dead body – it quickly becomes apparent that she’s the only one on the island with the ability for clear, level-headed thinking. And the body count starts to rise … and the pressure mounts. Will Thea escape the island with her life?
This was slow to start with, but once it picked up, the pace just didn’t stop. For me, this type of book is made all the better when none of the characters is particularly likeable, but the writing is so good that you still want to keep reading about them, just to see exactly how vile they can be and what’s going to happen to them. And it’s exactly that – their unlikability – that lends itself to the seam of disquiet that threads itself through the entire story. There’s always someone lurking somewhere just out of your sightline, always some hint of a clue or a fact that you think you’ve missed and are trying to remember. This is a story that makes you think. It’s a dark, tense, compelling study of how people in threatening situations react. Is ‘fight or flight’ different for the rich and famous or are we all just the same when put into a desperate situation?
There are jungle scenes that are so vivid that I could almost feel the leaves of the trees brushing against my arms, and the claustrophobic humidity closing in around me. The descriptions are lush, and incredibly detailed. It felt like the author had physically experienced what she was writing about.
If you’re looking for an immersive thrilling read, then I highly recommend The Pledge. Thank you to Compulsive Readers for the blog tour.
Author Bio:
After spending sixteen years as an ecologist, crawling through undergrowth and studying the nocturnal habits of animals (and people), Dr Sarah Yarwood-Lovett naturally turned her mind to murder. She may have swapped badgers for bears when she emigrated from a quaint village in the South Downs to the wild mountains of the Pacific Northwest, but her books remain firmly rooted in the rolling downland she grew up in.
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