Ink Ribbon Red
A Novel
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A wickedly plotted new thriller, in which a group of friends play a deadly game that unwraps a motive for murder, from Alex Pavesi, the author of The Eighth Detective
Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention called Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: Everyone chooses two players at random, then writes a short story in which one kills the other.
Points are awarded for making the murders feel real. Of course, it’s only natural for each friend to use what they know. Secrets. Grudges. Affairs. But once they’ve put it in a story, each secret is out. It’s not long before the game reawakens old resentments and brings private matters into the light of day. With each fictional crime, someone new gets a very real motive.
Can all six friends survive the weekend, or will truth turn out to be deadlier than fiction?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pavesi (The Eighth Detective) impresses with this head-spinning meta-mystery. In 1999, antiques dealer Anatol invites five close friends to celebrate his 30th birthday at his family estate in Witshire. The festivities revolve around a parlor game Anatol has devised called Motive Method Death. Participants draw two names—that of a victim and that of a murderer—from martini glasses, then dream up one another's deaths in the form of short stories or lurid sketches. Pavesi ups the ante by refusing to differentiate between rounds of Motive Method Death and real life, leaving readers to wonder, for long stretches, about the veracity of a fatal fire or a gruesome car accident or an impalement on a sundial. Meanwhile, the author probes the backstories of Anatol and his "friends," unearthing incidents of blackmail, backstabbing, and attempted murde. Early on, Anatol acknowledges that his game owes a debt to Agatha Christie's remote-location classics and the gothic spirit of Shirley Jackson; the novel does justice to the comparisons. With shrewd plotting and a bewitching atmosphere, Pavesi ensures that fans of Anthony Horowitz will delight in staying one step ahead of his befuddled characters.
