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Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin – Review

Disclaimer: This book was kindly gifted to me by Pan Macmillan SA in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details

Title: Saint X; Author: Alexis Schaitkin; Published: 18 February 2020; Publisher: Pan Macmillan SA; Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction; Page count: 343

My Thoughts

Saint X is about a young American girl (Alison Thomas) who goes missing while on a family vacation in the Caribbean. Alison vanishes while on the fictional island of Saint X in 1995. Schaitkin describes the vacation spot as “lovely nowhere,” until Alison’s death exposes its ugliness. The book unpacks a lot of issues i.e. grief, class, obsession etc. These topics are addressed amazingly throughout the book. The book reveals the damage done to Alison’s family, friends and acquaintances.

Alexis did an amazing job with vividly describing the setting. In the beginning, she paints every small detail about the island and as a reader you can actually imagine it because it’s well painted. This might be an issue for some people but for me it was not and I thought it was really necessary because you get to see yourself on this island.

Even though the story takes place in different timelines we get all the pieces and backstories thus allowing us to get to know other characters in the story. The characters are different, which makes up the storyline. 

I had a few ideas as to how the story would unfold and I really enjoyed how the author tied in everything at the end. It was well done, you know when you get fulfilled about how the story ends, that’s how I felt. She ties in everything perfectly and I absolutely loved that the story ended the way it began (same setting).

This is a debut novel and I cannot wait to read more from this author. I’d say its a good entry to the mystery genre and I’d highly recommend it. 

Synopsis

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men – employees at the resort – are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth – not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? At seven, Claire had been barely old enough to know her: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation.

As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, an unlikely attachment develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by the same tragedy.

Have you read it? Will you be adding this to your list? Leave us a comment in the comments section below.

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