One perfect couple

One Perfect Couple is a fresh, adrenaline-fueled take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, set on a current-day tropical island where five couples are competing on a reality show to prove they are the best match. However, nothing seems to go right for Lyla and Nico; after a whirlwind audition and being promised a free luxury vacation in paradise, doubts surface when they sail to "Ever After Island." As they ride on a cramped boat and meet their fellow participants, an unusual lot, the entire production suddenly seems somewhat shady. After experiencing a disconcerting first contest, the contestants find themselves alone somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the director and film crew depart. Once a devastating storm turns their situation into a survival show, the stakes are life and death rather than a cash prize. One of the contestants dies during the storm, and then, one by one, their number decreases. In this absolutely ingenious thriller by a best-selling and highly praised author, the suspense gradually builds, and although the contestants' ordeal seems to last forever, the pages fly by in a tense but engaging narrative interspersed with someone's frantic SOS mayday calls. Bound to be a top summer 2024 beach read.

Bestseller Ware (Zero Days) fumbles a promising premise in this clever but slack closed-circle mystery. Biologist Lyla Santiago's postdoc research on mosquito-borne illnesses hits a wall when inconsistencies in her colleague's work threaten their grant funding. Rudderless, Lyla agrees to join her boyfriend, out-of-work actor Nico Reese, to film a reality TV competition called Ever After Island. On the Survivor-esque show, five couples complete in challenges on a remote island in the Indian Ocean and then vote to send one contestant home each week. Lyla plans to get eliminated quickly so she can return to London and sort out her future, leaving Nico behind to improve his career prospects. Her plan gets complicated, however, when a powerful storm sweeps across the island, isolating the contestants from the show's production crew. When people start turning up dead, Lyla has to decide whom to trust, taking the traditional stakes of reality TV alliances to nerve-shredding new heights. Ware has plenty of fun with her Agatha Christie--esque setup, but she fails too whip up sufficient suspense--the plot's resolution is simply too easy to crack. Readers will hope Ware returns to form next time out. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary. (May)

What harm could it do? That is Lyla Santiago's initial thought when her boyfriend Nico suggests they compete in a new reality TV show called One Perfect Couple. Since Lyla's academic career as a scientist seems stalled, the idea of a few weeks' "vacation" to shoot the show sounds terrific. However, soon after arriving, with four other couples, on an isolated island in the Indian Ocean, Lyla finds her dream vacation turning into a nightmare. Ware puts her own inventive twists and turns on the popular "trapped with a killer in an isolated locale" type of suspense made famous by Agatha Christie in And Then There Were None. Ware then also deftly layers a bit of Lord of the Flies-style tension into her tautly strung storyline as her characters find themselves not only cut off from civilization but struggling to survive the after-effects of a deadly tropical storm. VERDICT Ware (Zero Days) once again delivers the literary goods, with a cheeky sense of wit (including a "blink and you'll miss it" nod to one of her own books), a propulsive sense of pacing, and a fiendishly clever conclusion.--John Charles

A reality TV paradise becomes a nightmare for the show's unlucky contestants. Lyla Santiago and Nico Reese have been dating for more than two years, and she's beginning to feel like their relationship may be hitting a wall; she loves him, but his main focus at 28 is on his acting career, while, at 32, scientist Lyla is starting to dream about settling down. When Nico pleads with her to join him on a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, Lyla views it as an opportunity to see whether their relationship can go the distance--in reality as well as on TV. They arrive on a remote Indonesian island to find blue waters, white sands, romantic huts, and eight other contestants, all beautiful, glamorous, and clearly committed to bolstering their visibility by competing on the show. The director seems a bit shady; he insists (as their contract demands) that they turn in all electronics, plies them with booze, and then leaves with the crew--and the first ousted contestant. That night, a huge storm sweeps across the island. The next morning reveals a fatality among the wreckage: a hut and its inhabitant have been crushed by a tree, and the outbuildings have been destroyed. The remaining contestants are cut off from all communication, with the exception of one radio, and there is a very limited supply of food and water. So Love Island becomes Survivor, and one person in particular is set on being the last person standing. Ware offers another take on the locked-room mystery, but this time, her focus is less on creating a creepy atmosphere of dread, as she did in earlier novels, than on showing the absolute brutality of which some humans are capable. But she still has a good time herself: There's a funny self-referential line to an earlier novel, plus some female characters MacGyver-ing a battery. The prolific Ware continues to stretch herself, taking on something new in each novel and writing strong--and increasingly kick-ass--female characters. The most cinematic Ruth Ware novel so far. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* One Perfect Couple is a fresh, adrenaline-fueled take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, set on a current-day tropical island where five couples are competing on a reality show to prove they are the best match. However, nothing seems to go right for Lyla and Nico; after a whirlwind audition and being promised a free luxury vacation in paradise, doubts surface when they sail to "Ever After Island." As they ride on a cramped boat and meet their fellow participants, an unusual lot, the entire production suddenly seems somewhat shady. After experiencing a disconcerting first contest, the contestants find themselves alone somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the director and film crew depart. Once a devastating storm turns their situation into a survival show, the stakes are life and death rather than a cash prize. One of the contestants dies during the storm, and then, one by one, their number decreases. In this absolutely ingenious thriller by a best-selling and highly praised author, the suspense gradually builds, and although the contestants' ordeal seems to last forever, the pages fly by in a tense but engaging narrative interspersed with someone's frantic SOS mayday calls. Bound to be a top summer 2024 beach read. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.

What harm could it do? That is Lyla Santiago's initial thought when her boyfriend Nico suggests they compete in a new reality TV show called One PerfectCouple. Since Lyla's academic career as a scientist seems stalled, the idea of a few weeks' "vacation" to shoot the show sounds terrific. However, soon after arriving, with four other couples, on an isolated island in the Indian Ocean, Lyla finds her dream vacation turning into a nightmare. Ware puts her own inventive twists and turns on the popular "trapped with a killer in an isolated locale" type of suspense made famous by Agatha Christie in And Then There Were None. Ware then also deftly layers a bit of Lord of the Flies-style tension into her tautly strung storyline as her characters find themselves not only cut off from civilization but struggling to survive the after-effects of a deadly tropical storm. VERDICT Ware (Zero Days) once again delivers the literary goods, with a cheeky sense of wit (including a "blink and you'll miss it" nod to one of her own books), a propulsive sense of pacing, and a fiendishly clever conclusion.—John Charles

Bestseller Ware (Zero Days) fumbles a promising premise in this clever but slack closed-circle mystery. Biologist Lyla Santiago's postdoc research on mosquito-borne illnesses hits a wall when inconsistencies in her colleague's work threaten their grant funding. Rudderless, Lyla agrees to join her boyfriend, out-of-work actor Nico Reese, to film a reality TV competition called Ever After Island. On the Survivor-esque show, five couples complete in challenges on a remote island in the Indian Ocean and then vote to send one contestant home each week. Lyla plans to get eliminated quickly so she can return to London and sort out her future, leaving Nico behind to improve his career prospects. Her plan gets complicated, however, when a powerful storm sweeps across the island, isolating the contestants from the show's production crew. When people start turning up dead, Lyla has to decide whom to trust, taking the traditional stakes of reality TV alliances to nerve-shredding new heights. Ware has plenty of fun with her Agatha Christie–esque setup, but she fails too whip up sufficient suspense—the plot's resolution is simply too easy to crack. Readers will hope Ware returns to form next time out. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary. (May)