Ian Bledsoe, red-haired and ‘a professional big heart’, has been discredited and disinherited, so leaves the U S to make a last ditch attempt at starting over on the holiday island of Patmos. Charlie, his childhood friend, runs a business letting out luxury yachts and, very soon takes Ian on as his ‘Number 2’. Ian thinks his luck has turned: he’s got a job on an idyllic Greek island, he’s mixing with the rich and beautiful and he meets an old girlfriend. But no one is quite as care-free or innocent as they seem.
Growing up, Ian and Charlie used to play ‘destroyers’: a game in which they set up increasingly dangerous imaginary scenarios for each other to escape from, like an elaborate game of chess. The novel is based on the conceit that Charlie is now playing for real; and when he goes missing, Ian is unwittingly pulled in. ‘One lie concocted between old friends… [grows] to the size of an island’ and soon he’s involved in the murky dealings of Charlie’s real enterprise, complete with dodgy priests, a shady group of hippies hoping for the apocalypse, and drugs, diamonds and dynamite; all set against the tragic background of the Syrian refugee crisis.
The Destroyers examines: loyalty & friendship, fathers & sons, the use & abuse of power, as well as deception & self-deception. The fast-moving plot twists and turns, the characters are all suitably flawed and interesting, and the prose is a joy to read. I read this book in two sittings; it would make a fantastically absorbing holiday read.

An intriguing read - I loved the opening chapter and it kept me turning the pages, but I wasn't especially keen on the characters. Would definitely be a good beach read!

I am very sorry, but I was unable to review this book due to formatting issues. All of the words/letters ran together. I did email NetGalley, but they informed me you would be unable to send another copy of the book. My apologies.

The Destroyers is a tense and ominous novel about childhood friendship and about the lengths people go to protect their power and assets. Ian Bledsoe flees the death of his disliked father to the Greek island retreat of his old schoolfriend, Charlie, whose life seems untroubled by worry or money troubles, the opposite of Ian’s own. The situation on Patmos is far from idyllic, however, with social tensions and shady dealings that start coming out of the woodwork just as Ian thinks he might have found a refuge. This literary thriller becomes a complicated web of priorities as Ian tries to work out just what is going on which Charlie.

Bollen’s writing style is full of witty observations and the narrative becomes gripping as the strands really start to take off, all held together from the perspective of Ian. He is a classic friend figure, a fellow rich schoolfriend of Charlie’s who is now saddled with a lack of inheritance and an inferiority complex about life. The importance of Ian and Charlie’s childhood game Destroyers adds a vivid touch, a thread of danger running from the start until the imagined threat starts to appear real. The novel shows the modern world as a place divided and tense, with the refugee crisis, the collapse of the Greek economy, and the thread of extremist violence all forming the backdrop of the story. At times this seems a little irrelevant - Ian’s time in Panama is shown in perhaps too much detail - but what Bollen creates is a thriller about privilege and power that focuses more on characters and on the society that made them who they are.

Comparisons to Tartt’s The Goldfinch are easily made, though Ian does not feel similar to her protagonist and Bollen’s style isn’t as distinctive. However, the tense world evoked - one in which modern threats recreate old problems - is similar and the complicated formation of Ian and Charlie’s now-rekindled friendship feels similar to her work. The Destroyers is for anyone looking for a modern novel that looks deep at self-interest and self-presentation amongst a privileged world whilst also keeping up a tense, thriller narrative.