Different? Yes. Dystopian? definitely. Mysterious? Certainly. Masterly? Depends on your point of view. Locked Room? erm... no. It's a wild ride though.

The dying game by Asa Avdic.
On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees, and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure?
A really good read. I liked Anna. Didn't expect that. 4*.

I loved the sound of this book and put aside my misgivings about reading a book that had been translated, I will put my hands up and say I have never read a translated book that I have liked, and I can't understand why that is, it must be down to me rather than the book being lost in translation, it doesn't really make any sense.I so wanted to like this book, but I found it to be so slow, I even tried skipping ahead hoping that it would take off and capture my imagination the plot sounded fantastic, just up my street , but I didn't take to the main character and couldn't have cared less in the end.I even checked the title of the book as I was reading it to make sure I was reading the one I thought I was, it just wasn't as described on the tin.All I can say is that other more patient readers may enjoy the slow build up and enjoy the writing style, but try as I might I just couldn't get into it.I would like to thank the Publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

The blurb of this book was little misleading. I was expecting a twisty-turny locked-room mystery - a modern day Agatha Christie. What I got was a more ponderous piece of character-based fiction. Which isn't necessarily bad, it's just not what I wanted to read.

I really loved The Dying Game but I think it might be a little divisive considering the blurb which leads you to expect a kind of ode to Christie’s “And Then there were None” – which I suppose given the isolated setting and the actions there it kind of is – but this is also a dystopian novel, set in an imagined future where wars have changed the landscape and Sweden is under the implied rule of a mysterious intelligence service. So go into it with no judgement and you’ll find a terrifically atmospheric hybrid of mystery and political thriller.

We hear mostly from Anna and Henry – two people who know each other and have a kind of “will they won’t they” relationship that is teased throughout. Anna is suffering PTSD, the reasons for this are only half told but it’s obvious that she is an intelligent yet tortured human being. Henry meanwhile is all cold lines and cleverness, I enjoyed reading their differing points of view as the plot developed.

The island portions are somewhat creepy – there are obviously political machinations at play and perhaps nobody there is quite as they seem. The author plays on various fears very well here, layering possibilities and putting the characters into difficult circumstances, especially Anna who comes to realise that her role there is not what she had prepared for.

The background is well imagined if a little loose on detail – I was especially engaged by Anna’s relationship with her Mother and daughter – and I genuinely didn’t know where it was going until it ended up there which is always a plus for me.

Its a bit like a horror movie on the page with people disappearing and the reader never seeing the full picture, even really with the resolution – but I found it to be a proper page turner and therefore I would definitely recommend it especially if you are looking for something different and unusual.

I’ll look forward to this authors next book with some anticipation see if she can keep that edge of creativity that made this book work for me. Thoroughly enjoyable especially if you just go with the flow.

First, a bit of scene-setting – this might look and sound like a thriller, but context is important (and may be crucial to enjoyment where this novel is concerned). In the world of The Dying Game, it's 2037. There was a Second Cold War in 'the early 2000s', leading to the creation of the Union of Friendship, of which the Protectorate of Sweden – where this novel is set – is a part. The political situation is less clear, but we know there is an all-seeing, all-knowing 'Party' whose influence extends far beyond government. The protagonist, Anna Francis, works for a foreign aid organisation and has recently returned from a major aid mission to Kyzyl Kum. By all accounts, it was a success, and has even made Anna a little bit famous. But an early scene shows the Party has information they can use against her, and her interior monologue suggests she's experiencing (undiagnosed and untreated) PTSD. Anna's narrative also reveals her infatuation with an inscrutable colleague, Henry Fall.

With all that in the background, the plot is as follows: Anna is 'asked' (i.e. instructed) to go to Isola, a tiny, largely inaccessible island, where she will help with the recruitment process for an elite Party unit, the shady 'RAN group'. Her task: to pose as a murder victim. Only she and a doctor, who'll examine Anna and confirm her 'death', will be in on the fact that it's a setup: the rest are candidates. Once she's 'dead', Anna will be concealed in a hidden observation area from which she'll watch the others and report on how they cope with this high-stress scenario.

Things begin to go awry when Anna sees a familiar face among the candidates, and from there the situation spirals wildly out of control. There's a bit of a And Then There Were None vibe to it – people getting picked off, nobody knowing who to trust, and, of course, the remote island.

Perhaps the soft-dystopia angle serves to make the main thrust of the plot believable, but let's face it, there have been far more improbable thrillers with far more mundane settings. The details of this backdrop are what made the story work for me, but may be offputting for those who would prefer a straightforward thriller. I loved some of the smaller details – one of Stockholm's 'most buzzed-about restaurants' is popular partly because of its reputation for 'almost never having power failures' – and I felt Anna's coldness worked perfectly for her character arc.

Intriguing and surprising. This is Avdic's fiction debut; I'll keep an eye out for more from her.

Couldn't get on with this one at all! Took way too long to get started, and there was no real suspense. A lot of political machinations and an unlikeable main character meant I didn't enjoy this book.

I'm not sure how to describe my feelings about this book. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters - not even the main character, Anna.
The story is about Anna being given a mission on an island and she is told it is a test for the others that will join her - but it's not all that it seems to be.
The description of book makes it sound like a thriller but unfortunately the story did not have me on the edge of my seat.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the opportunity to read it.