An atmospheric thriller in an excellent setting, multiple murders, international diplomats, and shocking climax.
Graeme, the Canadian ambassador and his wife Jane are attending a diplomatic dinner along with an artist, an author, a deputy ambassador and several other international diplomats including Kristján, the mayor, who is still grieving his husband, Ari's death.
Each person has their own selfish reasons to attend, and some are hiding deadly plans. After a storm traps them and there's no way out, one of them got murdered in front of everyone, but no one could guess, how and why ? After that, everyone is a suspect.

It's very cleverly plotted with historical facts about the Iceland mixed with fiction woven in between. Multiple murders, multiple points of view, and shifting timelines increase the suspense. It slowly builds up with unreliable characters and selfish goals with political agendas that added the tension, which resulted in a shocking climax.
If you are a fan of Agatha Christie style locked-room mystery, it's for you.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Reid’s previous book was a nonfiction read about the strong women of Iceland, Secrets of the Sprakkar. She loves the time she has spent in Iceland, and that love is apparent when you read either of her books. The descriptions of the Westman Islands in the book are enough to make me want to book a one-way ticket!

You may find it hard to separate the characters in the first few chapters. However, the more you read, the more you can separate them as their personalities begin to sort themselves out.

As this is a mystery, I can’t give too many details about the plot or the story’s conclusion. I will say that the ending left as many questions as it did answers. But that is okay as far as I’m concerned.

Death on the Island is a fantastic read. It reminds me of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Be warned: you won’t want to stop once you start reading it. Because it is under 350 pages, you could easily read Death on the Island in one day—or at least in a weekend. When you book your trip to Iceland, let me know, I want to tag along!

A gripping whodunnit set against the stark, haunting beauty of Iceland. Death on the Island pulled me in with its moody atmosphere and compelling mystery. Eliza Reid does a fantastic job weaving Icelandic history and culture into the narrative—it added such a unique layer to the story and made the setting feel alive. The characters were well-drawn, and the twists kept me guessing. A solid debut that blends suspense with a strong sense of place. Looking forward to what Reid writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the digital ARC!

Death on the Island is a locked room mystery that has an Agatha Christie vibe. Based in Iceland, we watch a group of nine people having dinner and a tragedy unfolding.

The book had all the elements for a great mystery, but I struggled to stay connected with the number of characters and the plot. Also want to add, there’s a lot of history integrated in this book so it kinda made me confused.

A character driven mystery :)

Death on the Island

This book has a lot going for it. A group of people from disparate backgrounds with conflicting interests are gathered for an event on a small island off the coast of Iceland when they are forced by inclement weather to stick around until a couple of them meet untimely deaths. Virtually all of the main players are unlikable and selfish, leading to any number of possible suspects. Described as Agatha Christie meets Nordic noir, Death on the Island moves quickly and has several interesting characters, although not too many to keep straight. The exotic setting is suitably mysterious as well.

The focus of the chapters shifts among the characters, which adds to the mystery. The use of differing perspectives helps to keep the reader guessing. All in all, this is a solid debut. It is a worthy addition to the “stranded on an island” subgenre of locked room mystery novels, but it is certainly less noir and more classic Golden Age mystery-type stuff. It falls between three and four stars on a five star scale, in my opinion.

Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley provided access to this ARC; all opinions are my own.

Murder, Mayhem, and Mysteries Abound!

Eliza Reid knows how deliver an exciting mystery! Death on the Island is full of Agatha Christie-esque characters, more twists & turns than a labyrinth, and multiple murders! It’s exhilarating at times and there such hidden motivations that come to light within these pages that readers are going to LOVE it!

If you’re a fan of locked room mysteries, then this is the book for you. It starts in a classic “And Then There Were None” fashion with characters coming together for a dinner, where someone won’t make it out alive. However, with flashbacks leading up to the death, I was hooked. You get small glimpses of each character that build an engrossing environment! From here one might expect the story to wrap up as more gets revealed. However, in a fashion similar to John Marrs the story KEEPS going! Giving more and more depth to the story and bodies start piling up!

I think mystery readers are going to love this and Eliza Reid is an author to keep your eye on! I can wait to see what they write next!

Set against the dramatic backdrop of a remote Icelandic island, Party of Liars promises a chilling locked-room mystery but fails to deliver the tension and intrigue that such a premise deserves. The setup is classic: a diplomatic dinner turns deadly when one guest is murdered, and the ambassador’s wife, Jane, is thrust into the unlikely role of amateur sleuth. Unfortunately, despite the atmospheric setting and potential for intrigue, the book struggles with pacing and believability.

The narrative is bogged down by a sluggish plot and underdeveloped characters. For example, a pivotal scene in which Kristján, the grieving mayor, inexplicably allows two near-strangers to rifle through his dead partner’s belongings strains credibility and undermines emotional realism. Similarly, the character of Graeme, Canada’s ambassador, is positioned as a major power player, but his motivations and maneuverings come across as vague and unconvincing.

There are glimmers of promise, particularly in the dinner scene, which is richly described and captures the eerie tension of isolation and suspicion. However, these moments were too few to keep me interested. While the Icelandic setting is evocative, the mystery itself lacks urgency, and the twists fail to surprise. A disappointment for fans of Nordic noir or Christie-style suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Death on the Island is an Agatha Christie-esq locked room mystery. That is all it takes to get me to pick it up. Add in Iceland as the setting, and I was hooked. So I thought...

The book had all the ingredients for a great mystery, but it just kept falling short and not delivering the mystery and suspense. There was a lot of history about the island that honestly bogged down the flow of the story.

If you like character driven mysteries, then this may be for you. Personally, I prefer a more gripping edge of your seat mystery.

Set on an Icelandic island, the Canadian ambassador is visiting for the opening of a photography exhibition and also as part of talks with the local seafood firm, they are hoping to establish themselves in Canada. The party are enjoying a meal at the local restaurant Skerl, which prides itself on offering Icelandic food.
The highlight of the meal is The Flaming Viking cocktail, demonstrated by the chef and the Mayor, but when the deisplay is over and the guests sample their drinks one of them crashes to the ground.
Due to a storm the ferry is not running and the police chief is away on a course, so recently qualified Jonas is in charge of the investigation. This is a really good book with lots of twists with the biggest one right at the end.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

A remote Icelandic island. A mysterious death or two. A classic locked door mystery on a stormy weekend

A group of international players has gathered in a tiny village off the coast of Iceland for a diplomatic dinner. There's Kristján, the mayor reeling from a personal tragedy. Graeme, the ambassador with an agenda to push. Jane, his wife, along for the ride on another one of her husband's many business trips. And several others, from Iceland and from abroad, each with their own reason for being there, their own loyalties and grievances. By the end of the night, one of them will be dead. And it will be up to the ambassador's wife, Jane, to figure out how—and why.
What Jane soon comes to realize is that small communities can be the most dangerous of them all… and no one in their group is safe.

Moody, atmospheric, and quietly unsettling—Death on an Island by Eliza Reid pulled me all the way in.
Not your typical fast-paced thriller—this one simmers—it’s a smart, character-driven mystery with emotional depth and just enough menace to keep you flipping pages late into the night.

DNF 33%

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy Nordic noir and simmering tension that is both diplomatic and personal. Unfortunately, I am finding that I'm not invested in the characters or the murder mystery.

Review: Death on the Island by Eliza Reid
Out 13/05/25

A classic locked-room mystery with a Nordic edge. Slower paced than my usual picks, but the stormy island setting, clean multiple POVs, and fully explained ending was great. Not groundbreaking, but a quick and enjoyable read.

While I thought the setting of a small island off Iceland was fantastic and I'm a huge fan of locked room mysteries, this one missed the mark in so many ways.

The plot is extremely slow and really boring. This isn't a long novel but it took me days to slog through it because I had no desire to keep reading. Also, all of the characters are unlikeable and the revelations about them were so uninteresting. I also guessed the ending probably a third of the way into the book which reduced my enjoyment of it as well.

The writing was also stilted and didn't have much of a flow to it. Overall, this book is not a mystery I could recommend.

I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did. It wasn’t a bad read, it just wasn’t overly exciting or twisty. Just simply okay! 🙂

Still would recommend it because not every book is for every person! Pick it up if you enjoy simple mysteries without the twists! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. I have always wanted to visit Iceland.
Having Icelandic roots in my family made me curious to read this book by the Former First Lady of Iceland and co-founder of the Iceland Writers' Retreat.
The front of the book opens to a map to reference, and a summary of the Icelandic language the writer used helped set the story in a thrilling, visually twisty direction. Loved the mention of Gimili, Manitoba, but gave me horsefly flashbacks,iykyk.
As the introduction of the cast of characters began to unravel, this reader got Agatha Christie mixed with Knives Out vibes. The scenes were set very easily to picture the whodunit search throughout the story.
This (jaded/cynical) reader thought she had figured out who did it, but was very very wrong. That ending.. I will leave it at that.
It is no surprise that this book will be made into a TV series. The whisper of Book 2 and an upcoming memoir will be on my auto-buy list in the future.
Thank you, Eliza Reid, for bringing Iceland to life in this novel.

A locked room mystery in storm on an isolated island off Iceland, what a perfect setting for a murder mystery. This was a great debut with an eclectic cast of characters. We have a celebrity chef, a prize winning author and an abundance of authors at a dinner in a top restaurant. After a Flaming Viking cocktail, one of them drops dead. It is the second death on the island in 2 months, which is suspicious.

There is so much going on behind the scenes with all of these characters. They all seem to have grudges with each other, reason to want each other dead. It was also nice to learn a it about Iceland along the way. I had a little inkling of the killer, but as always I was wrong!!

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for my copy of this book to read. Out on May 13th.

This debut novel unfolds during a diplomatic dinner party on a remote Icelandic island, where a sudden storm traps nine guests. Among them are Kristján, the grieving mayor; Graeme Shearer, the Canadian ambassador with a hidden agenda; and his wife, Jane, who becomes the unlikely detective when Deputy Ambassador Kavita Banerjee dies unexpectedly. As Jane delves into the mystery, she uncovers a web of secrets, rivalries, and political tensions, all intensified by the island's isolation and the relentless storm. Not your typical locked room mystery, I was drawn into the descriptions of the beautiful Icelandic setting and remote nature of the island. The landscape is stark, barren, and no one is coming to help us anytime soon, I thought.

The author delves into themes of secrecy, political intrigue, and personal redemption. The protagonist, Jane Shearer, navigates the complexities of her marriage and the diplomatic world, embodying a blend of vulnerability and determination. The novel's structure, marked by countdowns and shifting perspectives, maintains a gripping pace, and there is so much going on it was hard to keep up at times.

The writing is beautiful and the setting is dark and atmospheric. As the characters get closer and closer to finding the killer, you are wrapped up in the action and racing towards the end. An amazing debut novel!

Eliza Reid, former First Lady of Iceland and author of the bestselling “Secrets of the Sprakkar” already proved she knows how to explore Icelandic culture and womanhood with depth and insight. In "Death on the Island", she mixes that same sharp focus with something darker — murder, infidelity, diplomatic shade, and one VERY tense dinner party. It’s her fiction debut, and instead of easing in, she locks a bunch of high-ranking VIPs on a wind-blasted island and kills one of them mid-signature-cocktail. No notes.

This book has the bones of a classic mystery — remote island, storm, body count — but it's layered with the kind of smart, subtle dysfunction only someone who's sat through real diplomatic small talk could write. Jane Shearer, the Canadian ambassador’s wife, finds herself playing accidental detective, and I’m grateful for it. She’s observant, exhausted, and clearly seconds away from either solving the crime or throat-punching someone with a canapé tray.

The guest list? Peak chaos. We’ve got politicians, a hot local chef, a moody writer, a smug entrepreneur and his suspiciously flawless wife, an artist who may or may not be sleeping with someone she shouldn’t, and a mayor who’s barely holding it together after a recent loss. To be fair, there are no solid relationships in this book. Everyone’s hanging on by a thread and a politely chilled glass of wine. It's like a diplomatic summit crossed with a therapy session with murder.

The mystery itself simmers more than it explodes — and that works. Reid’s pacing is deliberate, like she’s daring you to underestimate her while quietly piling on secrets and emotional wreckage. Some characters blur into the background (there are, admittedly, too many of them), but the ones that matter hit hard, and the reveal? I didn’t see it coming. Not even close. I closed the book and said “WHAT” out loud in my kitchen. That’s the kind of twist I want.

Also, the setting goes feral. The Westman Islands bring fog, cliffs, and that weirdly elegant menace only Iceland can pull off. Reid uses the landscape like a co-conspirator — cold, quiet, and totally unforgiving.

Final verdict is a strong, thoughtful four stars. Not because it plays it safe — but because it doesn’t. This isn’t a loud, splashy thriller. It’s sharp. Controlled. It cuts with a smile. I don’t need a series — I just want more fiction from her. More standalone disasters like this one. More elegant chaos. More emotionally repressed murder suspects and diplomatic nightmares. Honestly? I’m in.

Whodunity Award: Best Use of a Signature Cocktail No One Wanted to Drink as a Vehicle for Murder and Misdirection

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

I liked this locked room mystery with a bonus twist at the end, as well as learning more about a different country. Definitely impressive for a debut work of fiction!

Death on the Island attempted to blend the classic locked-room mystery of Agatha Christie with the atmospheric tension of Nordic noir, set against the dramatic backdrop of a remote Icelandic island which was what attracted me to applying for the ARC. The premise certainly had potential: a group of international figures trapped by a storm gathered for a dinner party and inevitably one of them dies.

On the plus side the author painted a vivid picture of the island's stark beauty and the isolating power of its landscape. The initial setup effectively established the claustrophobic atmosphere and characters, each with their own secrets and agendas which hinted at a complex web of potential motives. The book also touched on the dynamics of small communities and the hidden tensions that could simmer beneath the surface which added a layer of intrigue.

However, Death on the Island struggled to fully deliver on its promising premise. The pacing was uneven with long stretches of character backstory that detracted from the central mystery. While the characters had potential, they often remained somewhat thinly drawn, making it difficult to become fully invested in their fates or to truly suspect them.

The mystery itself while present lacked the intricate plotting and satisfying twists that are hallmarks of the genre. The clues are sometimes sparse and the investigation feels somewhat meandering leading to a resolution that may leave some readers feeling underwhelmed.

Ultimately, Death on the Island is a moderately engaging read that didn't quite live up to its full potential. While it offered a compelling setting and a hint of intrigue, it fell short in terms of pacing, character development and the complexity of its central mystery. It might appeal to readers seeking a light, atmospheric read with a touch of suspense but those looking for a truly gripping thriller should skip this.

(Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for a review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own)