The Island of Lost Girls

"A stunning, genre-defying novel, poetic, immersive, and as dazzling as the Mediterranean sun even as it pulls the reader through the darkest corridors of human behavior. I was totally mesmerized, from the beautiful, slow-burn opening chapters right through to the gripping, stomach-churning finale. Alex Marwood is in a class of her own." — Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone
"One of crime fiction's brightest stars." — Megan Abbott, author of The Turnout
"A stiletto of a novel: heart stopping and devastating." — Jenny Colgan, author of An Island Wedding and The Bookshop on the Corner
"Gripping, timely and beautifully written. Marwood blends story-telling prowess with characters so real that we inhabit their predicaments quite viscerally. The result is irresistible." — Sophie Hannah, author of The Killings at Kingfisher Hill
"A ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that is both compassionate and chilling . . . I couldn't put it down." — Mark Edwards, author of The Hollows
"A blisteringly immersive summer read." — Emma Styles, author of No Country for Girls
"No author is better suited to such grim material than Alex Marwood, who has a gift for dramatizing the most irredeemably toxic characters and situations. This meticulously plotted tale tacks dexterously between past and present, and the unfolding revelations feel both shocking and inevitable . . . beautiful and terrifying."  — Irish Times
"This thriller travels to some very dark places: missing girls, cruel traditions, abusive fathers. Where it shines brightest, though, is in its insightful, compassionate depiction of the relationship between Robin and Gemma." — The Observer
“An absorbing page-turner I didn’t want to put down. . . . If you’re the kind of reader who loves dark stories, where the hearts are barely beating, then you’ll love the slow burn chill in The Island of Lost Girls, whose web of a plot draws you in until you can’t imagine an escape.” — Entertainment Focus
“Pulses with mythic energy and devilishly clever storytelling.” — Irish Times, Best Books of 2022