The Dying Game | Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

The Dying Game

Apr 20, 2025 12:32 PM

Author:Asa Avdic,Rachel Willson-Broyles

The Dying Game

A masterly locked-room mystery set in a near-future Orwellian state — for fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

‘With a terrifying dystopian core and a foreboding that lurks on every page, this is terrifying stuff.’ Heat

‘An Orwellian debut novel that never lets up . . . A heady mix of And Then There Were None and The Hunger Games.’ Booklist

'Resembling Agatha Christie at her zaniest, this fascinating, ever- changing scenario is deftly and grippingly handled' Sunday Times

‘Oh, it’s really quite simple. I want you to play dead.’

On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees, and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure?

But as soon as Anna steps on to the island she realises something isn’t quite right. And then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins…

Reviews

Resembling Agatha Christie at her zaniest, this fascinating, ever- changing scenario is deftly and grippingly handled

—— Sunday Times

With a terrifying dystopian core and a foreboding that lurks on every page, this is terrifying stuff.

—— Heat

Agatha Christie meets George Orwell in journalist Avdic’s unsettling first novel ... Avdic not only constructs a fascinating and original plot but makes her imagined reality chillingly plausible.

—— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

An Orwellian debut novel that never lets up . . . A heady mix of And Then There Were None and The Hunger Games [and] a supremely competitive struggle for survival.

—— Booklist

Suspenseful . . . Like a Swedish Hunger Games for adults . . . A very promising debut.

—— Skaraborgs Läns Tidning

Intriguing . . . Reminiscent of classic "locked room" mysteries by writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James. But its near-future setting and Orwellian setup make it feel almost chillingly forward-looking as well.

—— Bookreporter

A deliciously creepy novel revolving around a terrific paradigm shift: The job you think you’re doing? That’s not the job you’re really doing.

—— Chris Pavone, author of THE EXPATS

A captivating thought experiment. A dystopia so credible it provokes chills, and a world that fits the psychological thriller like a glove.

—— Borås Tidning

Full of unexpected twists and turns, power games, and realizations that no one is to be trusted ... The pages rush past – I can't seem to be able to put the book down.

—— Sydsvenskan

Matthew Richardson's debut is a bang-up-to-date thriller told with old-school panache. A great read

—— Mick Herron , CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Dead Lions

Elegant and assured, My Name is Nobody weaves a complex web of moles, double agents and tradecraft, brought right up to date by a fresh young voice . . . compelling spy fiction

—— Michael Ridpath , bestselling author of Amnesia

A supremely confident debut . . . This story is told with panache and a taste for spy craft that mark it as outstanding

—— Daily Mail

Told with panache and a taste for the intricacies of craft that mark it as outstanding ... Solomon Vine reminds me not so much of le Carre's Smiley, but rather Len Deighton's spy in his marvellous debut The Ipcress File. If he keeps going, Vine could be that good ... a supremely confident debut

—— Daily Mail

An absorbing, spine-tingling novel brimming with atmosphere.

—— Daily Express

a superb, compelling read

—— Woman & Home

Sirens immediately feels like a classic, not a debut . . . a book for every crime fan.

—— Julia Heaberlin, author of Black Eyed Susans

An amazing thriller. Sexy, stylish suspense.

—— A. A. Dhand

A dark, dangerous noir, Sirens will be one of 2017’s smash hit debuts.

—— Nick Quantrill

A down and dirty slice of Manchester noir . . . Impressively bleak.

—— Shots Magazine

Page-turner is the only word for it.

—— Press Association

Brooding, blistering. Sirens is a remarkable literary thriller, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and James Lee Burke

—— A.J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

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