‘THE GREEK ESCAPE’ BY KAREN SWAN

I don’t know how prolific Karen Swan does it but again she managed to win me over with her latest, THE GREEK ESCAPE. I got the chance to get myself an advanced reading copy (thanks to the publishers at Pan Macmillan and the folks of Net Galley) and let me just say that if you’re a Karen Swan devotee you won’t be disappointed. Her heroine this time is a London gal—running away to New York City from a toxic relationship—who must replace a much-loved colleague at a luxury concierge company (they provide, well, luxury, to the well-to-dos) who fell victim to a hit and run. At first everything seems to be honky-dory, if not a little hectic, as our little British go-getter makes it all happen for her friend’s benefit. But when out of nowhere comes a sixth client, a hunky one at that, who asks for the impossible (finding a specific secluded getaway in the Greek Islands) she soon ends up being way over her head, not to mention in danger, as what she is led to believe is far from being the truth.    

I always feel that I do little justice to any novel I try to summarize, and THE GREEK ESCAPE is no different. The novel is so much more than this little synopsis of mine and so much more than what the industry would simply call a romantic suspenser. It’s glitz and glam, it’s a whodunit, it’s a love story, just like many of the author’s later novels. I won’t lie, those early ones where more up my alley with the many problems of the rich. The story in this one however still never lets up as our spunky heroine plunges deeper and deeper into the nitty-gritty of things which may have dire consequences to her mind and heart. She is a likeable one, that central character—as many in her entourage; even some of her foes. That’s one of the author’s strength, to render flesh-liked anyone of her cast. Put them in fabulous clothes and set them off in exotic locations and you have an exciting page-turner worthy of a revisit. Yes, some of those plot twists are obviously expected but their overall resolutions are mighty clever. I tell you, the pages just fly by once again at the hands of Karen Swan, and if champagne and caviar are still a pre-requisite in between nail-biting suspense then I’m more than happy to continue to follow her career wherever it leads to. 

THE GREEK ESCAPE is now available in Canadian stores only. The rest of you will have to wait a little longer—next July 12 to be exact.

Until next post—Martin