Paradise hides a deadly secret. From the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here . . .
On a trip to the tropical island where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s closer than she could’ve imagined—in this “unputdownable” thriller from “a master of suspense” (Elle).
“This book is Bartz at her best: twisty, shocking, and riveting—with a narrator you won’t stop rooting for.”—Laura Dave, #1 bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
AN ELLE AND CRIMEREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
When Abby steps foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what—if anything—she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident.
The island is nothing like Abby expected: Though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self, with only a handful of residents remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now runs every week or so.
There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the others are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.
As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects that one of them is Eszter’s killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will Abby discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
Unputdownable!
"This isn't the kind of thriller that will give you nightmares, but it is the kind of thriller that will have you turning pages late into the night and then give you dreams about wandering around a tropical island (at least it did for me). Truthfully, I'm not sure I'd call this book a thriller at all. The first half felt more like a mystery—maybe even a cozy one—with some more thriller elements coming in the latter half of the book. Genre aside, it's an enjoyable suspense novel overall. The story follows Abby as she lands ashore on a remote Mexican island, where four months earlier her fiancé died of anaphylaxis, to learn more about her fiancé's final days. The island, however, is inhabited by a group of expats who live on the island to escape their checkered pasts—and who don't want their secrets, no matter how innocent, to be revealed. This was a nice, quick, suspenseful read with a slow burn build to a thrilling and satisfying ending. I am never left disappointed by Bartz's books."
