Philine (Phil) Mann is a single mother with a big problem: she owes a lot of money but she’s bankrupt. Her only remaining asset is Can Philanton, a finca (a country home) on the island of Ibiza. So, she sends her son to England as an exchange student and travels to the island to arrange the finca’s sale.

On the ferry from Barcelona, she meets Tamar, who puts her in touch with the top Ibizan realtor, Jorg Sherer. Herr Scherer is willing to handle the sale, but he’s distracted because his wife just committed suicide.

So far so good, but now things begin to get strange. When Phil first visits the finca, she finds the place trashed, her best friend who was living there missing, and a dead rabbit head impaled on a fence post. Checking into a local hotel for the night, she runs into Adam Ryan. Adam is a former lover, but their relationship ended badly and he’s the last person she wants to see now. He’s in Ibiza because Sherer’s wife was his sister, Amanda, and he doesn’t believe her death was suicide. But the topper comes on Phil’s next visit to Can Philanton. She finds the place in flames and the authorities tell her there’s a dead body inside.

Phil wants to know who torched her only asset and why. Adam wants to find out who killed his sister and why. The two quickly realize their best course is to put aside their past and join forces. But that isn’t going to be easy. Every time they think they find an answer, more questions crop up. And danger lurks everywhere.

Island of Dead Gods is entertaining, with lots of detail, a surprisingly large cast of characters, and numerous plot twists. There are so many moving parts that it’s a little difficult to follow the story at first, but that fog soon lifts. From there, it’s an engaging story that draws the reader in with one crisis after another.

All the action takes place on Ibiza. The writer has done a good job of painting word pictures of the island and life on it. The story starts to go off into the weeds in some places, but it quickly comes back on track, and it never wanders so much that the reader loses interest. If some of the plot twists are predictable, most are not. My only other quibble is the frequent inclusion of Spanish words and phrases. They do add color to the story, but they also made me reach (figuratively) for my dictionary a lot.

As a thriller, Island of Dead Gods delivers. I think readers will find it interesting and exciting, and it will keep most of them guessing right up to the end. I enthusiastically recommend it.