June 15, 2021
A group of university friends who've flown to an island paradise to mark the passing of one of their number finds that her death has brought the conflicts among the survivors to a boil. Lissa Kateb, Georgie Ayers, and Bronwyn Miller were all competitive swimmers when they were in school together. So it seems especially ironic that Lissa has drowned in Kanu Cove, where her husband, Jem Kateb, manages a luxury resort. Now that the survivors have accepted Jem's offer of free accommodations on the occasion of Lissa's memorial service, cracks gradually begin to appear in their nostalgic group portrait. Years ago, Bron had cheated on her husband, Rob Miller, with Lissa's first husband, Graeme Williams, who's since died. Eternal singleton Georgie's friendship with Lissa looks more and more like a rivalry. Nor are all the group's problems in the present. Someone is sending Bron and Georgie mocking, vaguely threatening notes. Someone attacks Georgie--maybe a mugger, maybe someone after a bigger prize than her money. The sudden resignation of Jem's assistant manager, Cristina, coincides all too neatly with the news that the resort is bleeding money and that Lissa's high school buddy Duncan, a private equity powerhouse, has a larger stake in it than Georgie or Bron ever suspected. The question of whether Cristina has been embezzling only deepens when she turns up shot to death. As the paying guests drift away, the old school friends, left to ask how Lissa could possibly have drowned, realize that "once you suspect one of us, you have to suspect all of us." Slyly escalating head games that will make you think twice about booking that next getaway.
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July 2, 2021
Elliott's new novel asks: What would you do if you knew, deep down, that your best friend was a sociopath? It opens with a group of friends gathering at the luxury island resort owned by Lissa and her husband. Since their college swim team days, the group have remained steadfast friends and an integral part of one another's adult lives. But they are not gathering to celebrate; instead, they are mourning the loss of Lissa. Lissa apparently drowned while swimming alone at night, but her body has not been found. Her husband is devastated, but Lissa's best friend Georgie is filled with questions. How could such a strong swimmer drown? Why was Lissa swimming at night? Feeding Georgie's suspicions are memories of Lissa's unnerving behavior during their youthful escapades. Georgie has always been fearful of Lissa's actions. She knows that Lissa has an unwavering sense of right and wrong and that she believes in avenging injustices. Georgie becomes even more disturbed when the resort's guests find warning messages, the workers start disappearing, and someone seems to be trying to prevent Lissa's friends from leaving. Is Lissa really dead, or is something else more insidious going on? VERDICT Elliott's latest (after The Missing Years) is a great thriller with lots of red herrings and a blindsider of a twist ending.--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD
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Starred review from August 2, 2021
This wicked crime thriller from Elliott (The Missing Years) unfolds from the first-person perspectives of Georgie and Bronwyn, old college friends who have reunited on a Southeast Asia resort island that was owned by another college friend, Lissa, and Lissa’s husband, Jem. Georgie and Bronwyn are attending a memorial service for Lissa, who apparently drowned three months earlier during a swim in an island cove rumored to be the home of a sea serpent, though Lissa’s body was never found. After the service on the cove’s beach, odd things start to happen. On the mirror in Bronwyn’s hotel bathroom mirror, someone scrawls in lipstick “ITS
YOUR FAULT BITCH,” and Georgie survives a potentially deadly encounter with the legendary monster. Financial fraud; questions about the death of Lissa’s first husband, Graeme, from an allergic reaction after he was unable to find his EpiPen; and a murder stir the pot further before the twisty plot reaches a satisfying resolution. Elliott makes her characters feel like real people. Fans of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List will be compulsively turning pages. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary.