Publisher's Weekly Review
A tedious romance and a penchant on the author's part to slap on backstory with a trowel weigh down Ellis's plodding third outing for PI Kate Weller (after Sweet Taste of Revenge). Kate, who has returned to Charleston, S.C., and to her boyfriend, chef Eric Manfredi, receives a message from her boss, Nate Price, inviting her and the rest of the Price Agency investigative team to an all-expenses-paid getaway on Elysian, a private island off the Georgia coast, owned by Julian Frazier. All Frazier asks in return is that the operatives participate in a murder mystery game . Of course, the only way to get to Elysian is on Frazier's private yacht. Kate is delayed, and, by the time she arrives, several people have been murdered and her remarkably dull-witted colleagues are fighting for their lives. Clunky prose doesn't help ("she loved one man of Italian heritage more than life itself"). This tiresome romantic mystery is a haphazard collection of clichés. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
A private eye is separated from colleagues she may have to rescue as they are forced to solve the murder of a millionaire's wife.As the newest PI in Nate Price's little company, Kate Weller doesn't feel that she can turn down the boss when he invites her on a company retreat with the other employees and their partners. Nate insists that Kate's boyfriend, Eric Manfredi, join the gang as well, though Eric's reluctant to leave the Manfredi family restaurant, Bella Trattoria, in the hands of the other chefs in his large, close family. But Kate, who's been through periods of serious ambivalence about her connection with Eric (Sweet Taste of Revenge, 2018, etc.), puts her foot down until he agrees. When the couple finally respond to the invitation, they find that Nate, his wife, Isabelle, and the two other invited couples have already left to enjoy the privacy Nate has secured as guests on reclusive millionaire Julian Frazier's private paradise, Elysian Island. The guests' initial dinner with Frazier reveals that what they thought would be a vacation will be more like a week working at a private prison: Frazier wants Price's team to solve the murder of his late wife, and he's prepared to use force to get answers. Ellis' conceit follows the team on a "Ten Little Indians"-style quest while Kate and Eric frantically try to get to the island, just knowing that something must be wrong. And they're absolutely right: The thoroughly dislikable Frazier is eliminating suspects while the members of the Price team have lowered their expectations from vacationing to surviving.Perhaps the last of a series more notable for its plot-driven narratives than for providing more nuanced character development. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Nate Price, his employees at Price Investigations, and their spouses or significant others have been invited to exclusive Elysian Island off the coast of Georgia by a rich client, billionaire Julian Frazier, for a company retreat, with the only proviso that they solve a fictional mystery play. Once on the island, the group soon learns that the mystery is actually a real-life cold case, and there is no way to leave the island or contact the outside world until they solve it. Surrounded by heavily armed mercenaries, the group works to solve the mystery as they uncover horror after horror. Meanwhile, Kate Weller, a detective with Price Investigations, and her boyfriend, Eric, who missed the boat to the island due to a family emergency, can't understand why their texts to Nate and Frazier's yacht captain go unanswered. Kate begins to believe something is very wrong on the island and decides she must rescue her colleagues, although the local authorities decline to help her. Fast pacing, multiple points of view, and plot twists distinguish this eerie mystery, with its strong, well-delineated cast of characters.--Sue O'Brien Copyright 2019 Booklist
