The Destroyers : A Novel
Author(s): Christopher Bollen
An Esquire Best Book of the Year
A Paste Best Novel of the Year
Recommended by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, Vogue, Paste, New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Times, Yahoo!, Refinery29, BBC, PopSugar, Boston Herald, New York Social Diary, Library Journal, Bookstr, Kirkus
“A seductive and richly atmospheric literary thriller with a sleek Patricia Highsmith surface." —New York Times Book Review
"Equal parts Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Destroyers is at once lyrical and suspenseful, thoughtful and riveting." —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
“The Destroyers is one superb novel, a tightly woven and fast-moving narrative set in beautifully crafted prose. A read-all-night of a book.” —Alan Furst, author of A Hero of France
Arriving on the stunning Greek island of Patmos, Ian Bledsoe is broke, humiliated, and fleeing the fallout from his father’s death. His childhood friend Charlie—rich, exuberant, and basking in the success of his new venture on the island—could be his last hope.
At first Patmos appears to be a dream—long, sun-soaked days on Charlie’s yacht and the reappearance of a girlfriend from Ian’s past—and Charlie readily offers Ian the lifeline he so desperately needs. But, like Charlie himself, this beautiful island conceals a darkness beneath, and it isn’t long before the dream begins to fragment. When Charlie suddenly vanishes, Ian finds himself caught up in deception after deception. As he grapples with the turmoil left in his friend’s wake, he is reminded of an imaginary game called Destroyers they invented as children—a game, he now realizes, they may have never stopped playing.
Review(s):
“[Bollen] reveals a graceful prose>The Destroyers. Sharp imagery and incisive descriptions bring to life both the Greek island of Patmos and the moneyed class laying claim to it.... The suspense here is less high-speed chases or chapter-ending cliffhangers than something out of Patricia Highsmith—hardly a complaint.”
“Beautiful people visiting glamorous places, being wicked enough to bring Patricia Highsmith to mind. It just isn’t summer without this kind of globe-trotting glamour to read about, especially when most of it is set in the Aegean. Bollen is stylish enough to know what sells.... Escapism, as calculating as it gets.”
“A delicious literary thriller.”
“In this Talented Mr. Ripley-esque thriller, you’ll get transported to the remote and dazzling Greek island of Patmos where Europe’s glitzy jet set cavort all summer long.”
“[A] stylish literary study of the games moneyed people play.”
“Just try keeping The Talented Mr. Ripley — that shimmering 1999 movie, based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, of rich Americans getting into picturesque trouble in the sunny Mediterranean — out of your head while reading this dark-side-of-summer novel.... I rapidly turned the pages, lost in the harsh sunlight of Bollen’s world.”
“A seductive and richly atmospheric literary thriller with a sleek Patricia Highsmith surface.”
“Christopher Bollen’s third novel, The Destroyers, was pretty much custom-built for beach reading—lies! Murder! Rich people vacationing on a Greek Island!... He’s a longtime fan of Agatha Christie, which shows in his terrific mystery plotting, but he’s also a beautiful writer of prose and a canny psychologist of his characters.... The ideal summer page-turner.”
“A particularly transporting beach read.”
“Intellectually intriguing and eerily timely.”
ISBN: 9780062329998