I haven’t had the best track record with thrillers lately. Between predictable twists and underwhelming payoffs, I’ve been burned a few too many times to the point where I am almost afraid to pick one up. When I picked this book as part of my March Aardvark box, I did so hesitantly. After reading the first chapter, I was cautiously optimistic, and it didn’t take long for the book to win me over. In the end, I found it to be a fun, fast-paced, locked-room mystery that pays homage to the greats (hello, Agatha Christie vibes!) while adding its own modern, meta flair.

The story has a fun and juicy premise: There is to be an exclusive writer’s retreat on a private island hosted by the mysterious and reclusive author J.R. Alastor – an author no one has ever met. The guests? Six bestselling thriller writers, all of them masters of deception, each bringing their own signature styles and egos to the party. Mila del Angél, a former aspiring writer, has been recruited by Alastor to help organize the event – and she’s got her own hidden agenda. She’s not just here to serve drinks and organize scavenger hunts. She’s here to settle a score with someone who wronged her in the past.

Right from the start, Pliego sets a very theatrical, self-aware, and gleefully dark tone. The retreat is themed around the writers’ own work – complete with staged games and riddles that parody common thriller tropes. But things take a deadly turn when one of the authors is murdered in a way that eerily mirrors a death scene from one of their own books. Suddenly, the fun and games become a real-life whodunit, with each guest now both suspect and potential victim.

What I loved most about the book was its creativity. It starts off with a side of campiness, which is maintained throughout the book. The plot is fun and twisty, and the book never takes itself too seriously, which is a problem many of today’s thrillers have and exactly what made this one stand out. The idea of a killer using each writer’s own fictional deaths against them is very clever, and Pliego really leans into the meta-layering. It’s a book about writers, writing, and the stories we tell – not just to others, but to ourselves. Every character has secrets and motives, and part of the fun is watching them unravel in real-time.

The cast of characters is varied and entertaining, and while there are nods to familiar author archetypes – the up-and-coming literary darling, the pretentious literary snob, the bestselling hack, the dark and brooding recluse – they never feel like caricatures. Pliego gives each of them just enough depth to keep things interesting, and the dialogue crackles with tension, wit, and just enough camp to make it fun.

Mila, our protagonist, is particularly compelling. She’s not a traditional heroine – she’s complicated, morally gray, and very much playing her own game. Watching her navigate the chaos, all while trying to execute her own plan and dodge suspicion, was super fun, and it helped that I was never sure if I could trust her. She’s both unreliable and deeply relatable, which makes her the perfect lens for this story. It also helped that we got to see things from each of the other guest’s perspectives as well. This added a nice touch and never felt overwhelming. The author is great about capturing each of their voices perfectly, so I was never confused as to who was who.

If I had one critique, it’s that the ending did feel a bit muddled. While I wasn’t shocked by the reveal of the killer – I had my suspicions early on – there are a lot of threads being tied up at once, and it slightly undercuts the crisp pacing that carried the rest of the book. That said, it didn’t ruin the experience for me. The journey to get there was entertaining enough that I didn’t mind a slightly messy landing.

Overall, I found this to be a wickedly fun homage to classic mysteries, full of insider nods to the thriller genre and enough suspense to keep the pages turning. It’s part Agatha Christie and part “Scream”, and completely aware of its own theatrics but in the best possible way. If you’re a fan of twisty mysteries, meta-fiction, or just a good old-fashioned locked-room murder, this one’s well worth your time.

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