Last year, one of my favourite thrillers was the dark academia novel ‘The Maidens’ from Alex Michaelides. So, when I saw that ‘The Fury’ was out, I knew I had to grab a copy, because I could not wait to see what Alex Michaelides was treating us to next.
This book did what Alex Michaelides does well, it had a fantastic narrator who you suspect is unreliable from the first page but draws you straight into the story. You just have to know what is going to happen next and what exactly the narrator’s motive is. This is a story of obsession, power and secrets, interwoven with the myths of the Greek islands. All of which results in a number of twists and turns that take the reader on quite an adventure.
Although I did work out one of the twists (I am not sure it is particuarly hidden), the joy of the story is finding out what led to that twist or that decision. The book is fascinating as the motive behind every characters actions is what keeps you reading. How much does each character know about the other, who is really working together, and what is the fact and what is the fiction?
The setting of a Greek island becomes as much part of the story too. It is a great setting as the heat of the island adds to the tense atmosphere of our collection of shady characters. An isolated, private island always seems to be a great setting for a thriller after all (‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie has to be one of the best examples of that, if you have not read it – you should, when you have read ‘The Fury’, of course).
All of this has not stopped ‘The Maidens’ from being my favourite by Alex Michaelides, but this was another great read that had me hooked. And I enjoyed the references made to some of the other novels.
This is going to be a great read for those who enjoy a thriller as we enter the warmer months, if you can wait that long to pick it up.