The Private Island, Ali Lowe

Not for a moment would this reviewer wish to suggest that this is a time in history when the murder of an obnoxious rich person, on a luxury island, busily engaged in being obnoxious and threatening to all and sundry is an enjoyable idea, but it did come across, in this novel, as particularly pleasing. In a not as uncomfortable as as you'd think way.

THE PRIVATE ISLAND by Ali Lowe is a take on a locked room scenario, combined with some filthy rich unpleasant people and some not so filthy rich, but guests as well people, who all come together with a lot of motives to want somebody dead. As the blurb describes the main players:

The billionaire's daughter, glamorous, untouchable, hungry for her inheritance.
The start-up founder, out of money, and out of time.
The young dive instructor, in way over his head and struggling to stay afloat.
The husband, blinded by desire, in all the wrong ways.
And the lover, hidden in the shadows, where no one can see them....

This list doesn't include a deeply put upon wife, an estranged and angry sister, and a quietly determined and clear-eyed Head of Housekeeping and Aunt.

It all comes together in a very engaging combination of characters, and idyllic setting. A tropical island preparing to see in the new year with a masked party, champagne, fireworks and a few more deaths than the staff are quite used to dealing with. Whilst one death seems natural, the second, on the other hand, is quite obviously anything but. The problem is that there are more than enough suspects, almost too many of them really.

THE PRIVATE ISLAND very quickly became very compulsive reading. Got to love an author with the skill to write deeply unpleasant people with this much joie de vivre. The author's that is - the characters demonstrated just how money does not make you happy, or human for that matter. The standout "investigator" in the bunch is definitely housekeeper Una although the put upon wife Kitty, eventually emerges from her internal conflict to become both an ally, and a lot more that's particularly unexpected.

The setting serves as a great exclusive locked room resort, but there's also connections between some of the characters and the place which help to bring the staff and the client's together when required, and all the while, there's trouble brewing, and murderous intent that includes the distinct possibility that there's more sympathy for the main suspect than there ever could be for the victim.

Right from the very start THE PRIVATE ISLAND was engaging, entertaining, and an excellent whodunnit. The why always seemed pretty obvious, the only mystery there seemed to be why it took so long for somebody to kill a person that obnoxious, but the lovely twist in the tail was that second to final reveal. It was so... base, so nasty, so apt. And then there's an ultimate reveal.