Well, thank goodness that's finished so I can breathe again. This was just the thing to take my mind off coronavirus. Alastair Haston is a student of moral philosophy and German at St Andrew's University. He has been dumped by his girlfriend Ellie but knowing she is visiting Greece, he decides to go there as well and 'bump' into her. The best laid plans and all that. Of course he doesn't bump into Ellie. Instead he meets Ricky, a charismatic Australian and before long he's partying so hard with him he wakes up in a pool of his own vomit and piss on a beach, his money and passport gone. Things rapidly go from bad to worse with Alastair making a series of bad choices and losing his moral compass.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout this novel, most of which I didn't see coming. And that's high praise from me. I usually spot them from about page 11. This would make a brilliant film. The beautiful setting of the Greek islands and a pacy, thrilling (albeit pretty unbelievable) plot guarantee success.

Be warned though. There are explicit scenes of violence and sex so if that's not your thing, then best stay clear. I really enjoyed it even though I skipped over the more graphic scenes. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Elli had been asking Alastair Haston,
a German and philosophy student at St. Andrews University all term if he’d go to Greece with her to visit her uncle in Athens. He said yes.
Then she broke up with him.

Haston was obsessed with Ellie.... devastated that she left him, Haston decided to go to Greece alone without her.
He had something to prove to Ellie - mostly to himself.

Nothing goes as planned. Haston arrives Paros.
Problems started immediately upon arrival in Greece, for Haston.
Being mugged -(passport and money taken)- wasn’t the only crises Haston faced.
A crazy adventure brings....
Haston was framed for six accounts of murder on the islands of Paros and Santorini, as well as the murder at sea of two officers on a police launch.
He spent four weeks under police watch at an infirmary — due to an injury and seven months in a high security prison, awaiting first bail which was denied, on account of him admitting to killing two others in self-defense.

The good news though - Haston wasn’t ridiculously obsessing every waking hour over Ellie finally.
Ha... he had bigger fishes to fry!
“The truth was, I’d moved on and was starting to feel whole again; not one of the mad or brave who would change the world, but rather a necessary cog and cohabitant of planet Earth, tumbling unfettered and
unjudged through time. No further need for self-definition than simply to be there. Like a lizard on a rock”.

This book is a crazy ride - filled partying, sex, violence, depravity, and mayhem.
It was a thriller with personality and heart — taking us on a fierce and tender journey.
What happens on the islands in Greece stays on the islands.

Quick fast read - reads like watching a crime/thriller movie.

“Nothing comes from nothing. Be it fate or free well, life boils down to continuous binary code: never-ending series of choices; yes or no; in or out; fight or flight. Until death ends the equation. Humans overcomplicate it; we invent shades of gray, hover in a limbo of moderation and seem in intelligence. Only the mad and the brave change the world. The rest look on in wonder.
Haston went to Greece to embrace the binary code, to get off the sidelines and become a player. To live in the moment. Or, as Ellie put it, to become his own man.

Thank you Netgalley, Muswell Press, and Dugald Bruce Lockhart

3.5 stars

Following his ex-girlfriend to Greece, getting mugged, being offered a job and taking part in lots of partying, things go downhill for Alistair when the body of a missing tourist is found and he gets the blame. A thrilling tale that will keep you captivated until the end!