In the not too distant future, seven people have been selected to participate in a 48 hour competition. Placed together on a tiny isolated island, the winner of this competition will receive a coveted position in the top secret Union of Friendship. Among those being tested are a top ranked CEO, a well known TV personality, and Anna Francis; a workaholic bureaucrat with a young daughter she hardly sees and a haunting secret.

Unbeknownst to the other competitors, Anna is not taking part in the test – she is the test. After staging her own death, she must watch the other competitors and judge their reactions as they learn a murderer walks among them. Who will lead? Who will take control? Who will crack under the pressure?

At first, all goes according to plan until a storm rolls in and the power goes out. Then the real game begins…

I’m not sure what I was expecting, dear reader, when I started The Dying Game. Going by the blurb on the back of the book, I was led to believe this was a kind of locked room mystery. Where the protagonist is led to believe they are the one in control but at the narrative goes on, they learn there is someone else pulling the strings.

And while that last bit is somewhat true, it is how we (and Anna) get to that realization that is somewhat of a let down.

The set up to the actual “game” itself takes far too long, in my opinion. Then once everything begins, it becomes less a study of the other characters and more a study of Anna herself. While she is the only one who “dies”, the other characters also begin to disappear one by one, leading Anne to wonder if perhaps she isn’t going mad.

It is only with the resolution of the story – that it was Anna herself being tested – that we are given some kind of closure. Yet it isn’t terribly satisfactory. It left me questioning who was the real protagonist here and who was the real antagonist? Just as I am sure the characters were questioning the events that transpired.

I can’t really recommend The Dying Game because what I thought I was going to read and what I read in actuality were two different things. With writing that could be a bit blocky and staid at times and a confusing resolution, I have to say – skip this one.