The Fury

“We are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives.”

Are they giving all the facts? Are they who they say they are? An unreliable narrator is always a welcome surprise for me. As a reader, I love that feeling that I can’t trust my own intuitions. Alex Michaelides plays this game of deception with great finesse, and his latest narrator, Elliot Chase, is one of his most devilish creations.

The Fury is a bloody saga full of suggestive shadows and lies. But how did a simple Easter getaway come to all this? Lana Farrar, a reclusive ex–movie star, finds herself in a funk, so she invites friends and family to visit her personal island in Greece for the holiday. Tensions are high and everyone hopes for some much-needed R&R. Unfortunately, the island has other plans. A fierce storm blows in almost immediately. When its fury quells for a moment, it turns out a member of the party has been killed. As accusations fly, everyone tries to figure out who dealt the deathly blow and if they’re still out for blood. Along the way, readers’ attention and suspicions are pulled to and fro, and we come to realize our narrator and guide—Lana’s friend, Elliot—may not be giving everything to us straight.

As in his breakout hit, The Silent Patient, here Michaelides plays with reader psychology not just to raise the stakes but also to reveal essential truths about human nature. It makes for a potent and thrilling cocktail. Take a sip, I promise you won’t regret it.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time—it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse—a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.