She Treads Softly: The Island of Lost Girls

Saturday, June 3, 2023

The Island of Lost Girls

The Island of Lost Girls by Alex Marwood
6/13/23; 480 pages
HarperCollins

The Island of Lost Girls by Alex Marwood is a recommended novel that tackles current headlines involving wealthy, corrupt, evil individuals and lost innocence.

Set on the fictional Mediterranean island of La Kastellana the narrative follows two timelines set in 1985 and 2016. London-based multimillionaire Matthew Meade arrives in La Kastellana in 1985 with the new Duke and plans to develop the island into a destination for the rich and powerful. This is when twelve-year old Mercedes Delia meets thirteen-year-old Tatiana Meade. The Meades secure Mercedes as a companion for Tatiana, which is the beginning of a life of serving the Meades.

In 2016 Robin arrives on the island looking for her seventeen-year-old daughter Gemma who has been missing for over a year. She had clues that Gemma was heading to the island, but once Robin arrives there she realizes that finding people willing to help her is going to be hard on this island controlled by the wealthy. At the same time an undercover Europol investigation of human trafficking is secretly working with Mercedes to gather evidence about the disturbing activities on the island.

This is a slow-moving and slow-to-build suspense novel that requires time and attention to details in order for readers to become immersed in the plot. However, once you stick with the story about half way through the book you will know the dark hidden truth and exactly the direction the narrative is taking. The plot clearly took inspiration from news stories about the wealthy and powerful using their positions to do exactly what they please and the cost their nefarious desires extracts from others. The details are dark and gruesome.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.