Device free weekend A thriller

This wild and woolly thriller from Doolittle (Kill Monster) gathers six keyed-up college BFFs for what amounts to a 30th reunion on the private island off Puget Sound owned by social media CEO Ryan Cloverhill, the seventh member of their circle. The first hint of anything wrong for the two married couples and one pair of exes is their host's stipulation that all devices are to be surrendered on arrival. The second, unmistakable clue, comes when the six guests wake up in Ryan's luxury compound to find no sign of him, a single blinking touchscreen tablet the only potential means of communication to the outside world, and then suddenly four of them are trapped inside the main building and the remaining two, who had gone outside, hopelessly locked out. They soon discover it's not a misguided effort by the eccentric mogul to create an escape room experience but something far more dangerous. This circus quickly careens out of the control of its ostensible ringmaster, with results dramatic, deadly, and occasionally funny. Though character takes a back seat to the high-octane action, Doolittle more than compensates with a creatively madcap adventure. Fans of TV's The White Lotus will find a lot to like. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management. (Feb.)

A social media mogul invites six old college friends to his private island for a tech-free reunion. What could go wrong? Stephen Rollins is puzzled when he receives a fancy invitation from Ryan Cloverhill, his awkward Bardsley College ex-roommate and now founder and CEO of a popular Facebook-like social networking platform. It's been almost 20 years since any of the seven friends have seen each other. Why has Ryan now asked them--Stephen, who's never been married; his former love Emma, who's divorced; straight, married social media influencers Beau and Lainie; and gay married couple Will and Perry--to spend an all-expenses-paid Labor Day weekend with him on remote Sham Rock near Puget Sound? After a joyous first evening of reminiscing over dinner and drinks, the group members wake up, hungover, to find the host gone. Also missing are the phones that they handed to Ryan before entering his house. Left in their place is a tablet with the words "Unlock Me!" on the screen. The first half of Doolittle's latest thriller neatly sets up an intriguing Agatha Christie--like premise (think And Then There Were None); but as the friends (and the reader) discover Ryan's true intentions, the plot begins to unravel as quickly as Ryan's dark scheme. Although the novel touches on the addictive, damaging nature of technology and social media, the author ironically relies too much on techie bells and whistles, and not enough on character development and motivation, to propel his not very believable storyline. A device-free weekend indeed! Clever concept, disappointing execution. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.