A diplomatic visit to the Westman Islands in Iceland seems like a way for relations with Canada to be strengthened. A former local artist Hanna is also there to open her art exhibit. It should be a fine meal at Skel, an extremely popular restaurant. Yet after the owner and chef Piotr serves his signature cocktail, someone winds up dead. It also is not the only dead body from what started as a group of nine.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that the chapter headings give you an idea what’s coming. Most of the story takes place over several days, but the final reveal doesn’t come until much more time has passed. When the author exposed the guilty party, I thought the twists were done. Silly me, there were so much more to come!
The location and the weather made this an intriguing locked room mystery. Who could’ve done these horrible things except for one of the guests? I’m not usually a fan of reading books set in the season that I’m living through right now,but I just went to take a little peek and read one chapter, and after that I couldn’t put it down. Jane,the wife of the Canadian ambassador was by far my favorite character. No spoilers, but I was hoping the whole time that she wasn’t a victim or a villain.

Who would have thought Agatha Christie retelling a were having a comeback?!? I could see how this was inspired by “And then there were none”. The nods to the original work were subtle but so well placed. I can’t wait to see what else this author comes out with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with this ARC copy in exchange for my honest feedback and review. Set to be released on May 13 2025, I am looking forward to reading this book!

Trapped on a remote island by a howling storm, nine people sit down to dinner. One of them is about to die. A group of international players has gathered in a tiny village off the coast of Iceland for a diplomatic dinner. There's Kristján, the mayor reeling from a personal tragedy. Graeme, the ambassador with an agenda to push. Jane, his wife, along for the ride on another one of her husband's many business trips. And several others, from Iceland and from abroad, each with their own reason for being there, their own loyalties and grievances. By the end of the night, one of them will be dead. And it will be up to the ambassador's wife, Jane, to figure out how—and why. What Jane soon comes to realize is that small communities can be the most dangerous of them all… and no one in their group is safe. With secrets around every corner and violent weather trapping the finite list of suspects together on the island, this locked-room mystery by internationally bestselling author Eliza Reid brings Agatha Christie and Nordic noir together in a brand-new twist.