Melody Writes

After a difficult confrontation, Miriam enters a reality show contest to win money, fix her life, and prove to her daughter that she is a mother to be proud of. Except, before she reaches the remote island where the show takes place, but after it's too late to turn back, she learns that there is no reality show. Miriam has been duped into spending the weekend on an island with six other strangers and no way to contact the mainland. Then people start dying. It takes quite a while (about a third of the book) before the first body falls, but once that happens, the book is off to the races. It becomes rapidly obvious that everyone on the island is terrible - living embodiments of the seven deadly sins and they are being punished for the crimes by... someone... I noticed a number of other reviewers struggled with this book and I can see why. There is a dark humour component to the story that doesn't always land, and since everybody is a terrible person, it's hard to root for any

The Ides of March      My wife’s warnings ring in my ears as I approach the Senate House. Doubt clings to every footstep, but I cannot let the pleas of a woman scare me away.    I am Julius Caesar.    Inscrutable faces track my progress down the steps. I take my seat and sit up straight to scan for Marcus. My heart sinks when I do not see him.    Maybe my wife was right, after all.    I stand to leave. Then the first knife parts my flesh. They descend on me en masse. Friends, colleagues – even Brutus.    My perforated body is left, bleeding on the floor.