The Dying Game is a very unique take on the psychological thriller. Set in the near-future, the story mixes dystopian with mystery a la Agatha Christie by way of locked-room style. This is my favorite kind of mystery while you try to figure out who you can trust or not. I enjoyed this original take where someone is up for a top secret position and must fake their own death, spy on everyone left and report how they handle the pressure. This was a bit more psychological than I had originally expected. I am curious where the author's creative mind goes next!

Wow! This was a quick read. Not normally what I go for - futuristic, dystopia, militaristic, political - but the synopsis grabbed me. It's like "And Then There Were None," but not really. Anna Francis takes on an unusual assignment to pretend to be dead, and on the forsaken island nothing is as it seems. The ending is one that will make you think, and I can't help wondering what happens to Anna next.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

Futuristic debut by a Swedish journalist that will have people talking around the water cooler. Anna is a workaholic with a young daughter she never sees and is about ready for a flame out when she is offered an unusual job, that of going to a remote island with a group of job applicants for a top secret job and then faking her own death in order to observe their reaction remotely. Sounds like one job interview you don't want to apply for but she takes the job. There is one catch though, her old boyfriend ends up being one of the job applicants. Once her death is official, others begin to disappear ala "And Then There Were None". A storm, lies, missing people and government shenanigans are all part of the program. Who is the manipulator and who is being manipulated and will anyone get off the island alive to tell? My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I could not put this down. It was like an alternative-history-future version of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None if Christie's characters were PTSD-suffering corporate spies. Tense, unsettling, and thoroughly enjoyable.

The Dying Game started strong. I was immediately drawn into the plight of the characters in this futuristic Cold War setting. I loved Asa Avdic's use of an island to create a microcosm in order to flush out strengths and weaknesses. The five candidates reminded me of a game of Clue, and I couldn't wait to see who would discover Anna (aka Mr. Body). However, I thought the ending was rushed. I longed for more of Anna's story, where she drew her motivation, and why she ultimately did what she did. Simply repeating past actions wasn't enough for me. For that matter, who stole the satellite phone? The reader needed more to truly understand the final pages of this suspenseful story.

Shades of Agatha Chrisite’s And Then There Were None permeate this thriller set in the not so distant future. As one of a small group of candidates vying for a position with the ultra creepy and controlling Union of Friendship, Anna Francis and her “teammates” are sequestered on a small island. Anna’s job is to stage her own “death” and then spy on the remaining six candidates to see how they react to her death and the knowledge that one of them must be a killer. When the island is overtaken by a huge storm, the time for games is over and a real life and death struggle commence. taken with all the bizarre and frightening things happening for real in politics these days, this story is even creepier than it would have been a year ago.