Endgame by Jeffrey Round

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Here's a fact about me. If you tell me a book is based on And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, I will want to read it. Even if it's centered around punk rock (a music genre I have little interest in or knowledge about), as Endgame is, I will be desperately hoping I will get picked to get an ARC.

Here's an opinion about Endgame. It is a good, clever book. It's even better than I had hoped it would be.

I think where Round sets himself up for success is how he faithfully paints his homage to the original brilliant "the killer is one of us" novel, while subtly updating it to fit his needs and modern times. The island is rumored to be owned by a pop star rather than a movie star, there is a DVD instead of a record, and a punk rock song in place of a poem.

While in my eyes no book, no matter how inspired, can ever be as good as And Then There Were None, Round does an excellent job here. I read this book in a day because I could not put it down. I had to know who the murderer was, and while my suspicions were correct (due perhaps to my innumerable re readings of the original source material), this did not lessen my enjoyment one bit---especially as I did not decide on who I truly suspected until the last few chapters, due to Round's expert placement of red herrings.

One does not need to be familiar with, or interested in, punk rock to enjoy this book. Round, through his characters, gives readers the information they need, whether through fictional magazine articles or reminiscences about Sid Vicious.

I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best homages to And Then There Were None I have read.