A surprisingly good mystery. I haven't read a straight out Christian whodunnit before, but since I'm a believer in God anyway this didn't pose any issues. Even if not a Christian, mystery fans should like this book. It was set on an isolated island, bringing back memories of Ten Little Indians, which is even quoted by a character for its similarities. All were summoned for a mysterious announcement and of course came across murder.

The blackmail stories unraveling were interesting, as were false leads and the final reveal. It's not usual for a final revelation in a mystery to be depressing and heartwarming at the same time, but this book pulled that off. Characters worked well enough - especially Simon. I wasn't gung-ho over the female lead, Julie, half the time, but didn't detest her. The book was split in the middle from two points of view - the minister and Julie, who was a therapist. In between those two were the wealthy and rich who rose to fame through corruption and family members who felt slighted by the victim's treatment.

The writing was a little simple at times; it took me a minute to warm up to it, but once the story took off it flowed by. It's a quick read which is hard to put down because these kinds of mysteries fascinate me - seclusion, being in a house with a group and knowing one is a killer but not knowing who it is, finding out the past crimes and sins of all the occupants and figuring out which with the motive took that final step. I wasn't able to guess the murderer clearly, although who did it didn't turn out to matter much in the end anyway. It's one of those stories where the revealing is what's exciting, not who the culprit is.

Not perfect but better than I figured - it stimulated the little grey cells in the brain for most of the book, and then turned to tug on the old heart strings at the end. ( )