American novelist Christpher Bollen (http://www.christopherbollen.com/) writes psychologically probing fiction in the style of John Updike and Jeffrey Eugenides. His third novel is a swift moving thriller. The summary is as follows.
Arriving on the Greek island of Patmos broke and humiliated, Ian Bledsoe is fleeing the emotional and financial fallout from his father’s death. His childhood friend Charlie – rich, exuberant, and basking in the success of his new venture on the island – could be his last hope. At first Patmos appears to be a dream. Long sun-soaked days on Charlie’s yacht and the reappearance of a girlfriend from Ian’s past seem to offer the lifeline he so desperately needs. But, like Charlie himself, this beautiful island conceals a darkness, and it isn’t long before the dream begins to fragment. When Charlie suddenly vanishes, Ian finds himself caught up in deception after deception. As he grapples with the turmoil left in his friend’s wake, he is reminded of an imaginary game called Destroyers they played as children – a game they may have never stopped playing. It’s all here – power, fate, fathers and sons, self-invention and self-deception.
Read this alongside The Magus (1965) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magus_(novel)) by John Fowles which is also a tale of psychological intrigue set on a Greek island. Available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magus-Modern-Library-John-Fowles/dp/0679602836/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Check if these entertaining thrillers are in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue at https://www.sllclibrary.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH
496 pages in Scribner UK
First published 2017
ISBN 978-1471136184
Christopher Bollen