The Fury by Alex Michaelides

Written in the style of a play in 5 acts, this unique murder mystery is both a love story and a tragedy. 

Lana Farrar owns a private island in Greece. She's a wealthy ex-film star who now lives a quiet life with her son, Leo, and second husband, Jason Miller, in London. Due to some recent circumstances and events, she decides to whisk her family and 2 of her closest friends off to Aura (the island) for Easter weekend. Accompanying her family are the playwright Elliott Chase and actress Kate Crosby. The only others who will be on the island for that getaway include Lana's assistant and housekeeper, Agathi, and the island caretaker, Nikos, who lives there full time.

Seven people on the beautiful island for an escape from the weather in England, among other things. Unfortunately, every now and then, the small island is beset by fierce Aegean winds known locally as to menos, which means the fury. Often this wind can cut the residents off from the mainland as boats cannot cross.  

So, we have the setting. We have the 7 actors. Now, the main part: the plot or the story. Told directly to the reader by the narrator and one of the main characters, Elliott Chase, is quite the twisty tale. But how reliable is Elliott?  As he tells us, every story and character has 3 words -- "motivation, intention, and goal." 

At the end of the weekend, someone has been murdered and one of the others has obviously done it since they are all stranded there. And that is when it all gets very interesting.

What a way to tell a good story! I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and the plot. Several surprises and a nice pace kept me hooked to the pages so I had trouble putting the book down. It certainly did not end the way I had anticipated, and I do love that when I'm cleverly fooled. 

I listened to the audiobook that I got from my local library while also reading along with the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. I love doing this as I can fully immerse myself into the novel. I liked the voice of the book's narrator, Alex Jennings, who did a pretty good job with all the characters but I always wish to have a female voice for the women. The crazy thing, though, was that at several times during my experience, the text did not match the audio. Sections had been moved around to a different place in the book so I had to scramble to go back and forth to stay in sync. Since mine was an ARC, this might be fixed by publication, but it was jarring at the time. 

Overall, a fun read that I enjoyed very much.

This is a standalone and not part of any series.

Genre - mystery, murder, love triangle, tragedy, romance