Publishers Weekly
04/24/2023
The idyllic Mediterranean isle of La Kastellana is fictional, but much of what transpires there is all too real in this disturbing thriller from Edgar winner Marwood (The Poison Garden). The three-decade-hopping narrative starts in July 1985, when London-based tycoon Matthew Reade docks his yacht in La Kastellana, planning to develop the unspoiled setting into “the New Capri,” and his bored 13-year-old daughter Tatiana seizes on local Mercedes Delia, just a few months younger, as the plaything she must secure for the summer. This proves a devil’s bargain for Mercedes, who remains trapped in a web with Tatiana and her father into adulthood as a powerless witness to the abuses inflicted on the barely legal beauties they groom for the delectation of Matthew and his cronies. Meanwhile, an undercover Europol investigation of human trafficking zeroes in on La Kastellana, and in 2016, a desperate British mother arrives on the island in a last-ditch effort to find her runaway 17-year-old daughter. Marwood builds her ripped-from-the-headlines premise into something sprawling and admirably ambitious. The suspenseful results should satisfy readers with stomachs strong enough to handle the gruesome details. Agent: Laetitia Rutherford, Watson, Little. (June)
From the Publisher
"A stunning, genre-defying novel, poetic, immersive, and as dazzling as the Mediterranean sun even as it pulls the reader through the darkest corridors of human behavior. I was totally mesmerized, from the beautiful, slow-burn opening chapters right through to the gripping, stomach-churning finale. Alex Marwood is in a class of her own." — Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone
"One of crime fiction's brightest stars." — Megan Abbott, author of The Turnout
"A stiletto of a novel: heart stopping and devastating." — Jenny Colgan, author of An Island Wedding and The Bookshop on the Corner
"Gripping, timely and beautifully written. Marwood blends story-telling prowess with characters so real that we inhabit their predicaments quite viscerally. The result is irresistible." — Sophie Hannah, author of The Killings at Kingfisher Hill
"A ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that is both compassionate and chilling . . . I couldn't put it down." — Mark Edwards, author of The Hollows
"A blisteringly immersive summer read." — Emma Styles, author of No Country for Girls
"No author is better suited to such grim material than Alex Marwood, who has a gift for dramatizing the most irredeemably toxic characters and situations. This meticulously plotted tale tacks dexterously between past and present, and the unfolding revelations feel both shocking and inevitable . . . beautiful and terrifying." — Irish Times
"This thriller travels to some very dark places: missing girls, cruel traditions, abusive fathers. Where it shines brightest, though, is in its insightful, compassionate depiction of the relationship between Robin and Gemma." — The Observer
“An absorbing page-turner I didn’t want to put down. . . . If you’re the kind of reader who loves dark stories, where the hearts are barely beating, then you’ll love the slow burn chill in The Island of Lost Girls, whose web of a plot draws you in until you can’t imagine an escape.” — Entertainment Focus
“Pulses with mythic energy and devilishly clever storytelling.” — Irish Times, Best Books of 2022
“The idyllic Mediterranean isle of La Kastellana is fictional, but much of what transpires there is all too real in this disturbing thriller. . . . Marwood builds her ripped-from-the-headlines premise into something sprawling and admirably ambitious.” — Publishers Weekly
“In addition to the story of a mother and daughter, Marwood wrings unlikely suspense from the fate of the tourism industry: Will the island become ‘the new Capri,’ as Meade is advertising it, or will the disappearing girls scare off the professional partiers?” — Washington Post
“Intense . . . . [The] subject matter [rings] so true.” — Bookreporter.com
“Thrilling and full of dark secrets. . . . Alex Marwood knows how to keep and hold my full-attention. I highly recommend this new novel to all true crime and suspense readers.” — Urban Book Reviews
