I didn’t like it nearly as much as I did the author’s first novel.

The Fury, Alex Michaelides, author; Alex Jennings, narrator
The stage is set. It is the Greek Island of Aura, named for the wind. Lana Farrar, a retired film star has grown bored with the London weather and she and her husband Jason Miller, her son Leo, and two friends, Kate Crosby and Elliot Chase go to her Greek island, Aura, for a retreat. The island, gifted to her by Otto Krantz, her deceased first husband, is named for the wind. There are two other people who live on the island, Nikos, the caretaker, and Agathi, the all-around gal Friday, housekeeper, cook, etc.
One of the guests, Elliot, is telling the story of that sojourn, but before he can begin, he describes the lives of each of them and how they got to know each other. Elliot had a troubled childhood. He was bullied and ignored at home. It turns out that he fell in love with Lana when he was just a small boy, after seeing her in a film. When he was old enough, he escaped his life and went to London to begin again. There, he met a well-known author, Barbara West. She took a liking to him and took him home. He was her companion, until her death. On another evening, when he was in the bar with Barbara, he came face to face with Lana, and they, surprisingly, hit it off immediately. They had a troubled childhood in common and were both the same kind of lonely.
Lana and her friend Kate Crosby were well-known actresses. Kate was still acting and was currently rehearsing for her role in the play Agamemnon, by Aeschylus. Kate was the femme fatale, Clytemnestra. Before Lana met Jason Miller, her current husband, he was Kate’s boyfriend. When Jason married Lana, one has to wonder how Kate felt about being bested by her friend. Both women could be considered femme fatales, as well.
As Elliot tells the story of the sojourn on Aura, the reader witnesses, with him, the murder of Lana Farrar. As Elliot relates what led up to that event, he returns to the past now and again to explain the background of each character and how they fit into the role they played that night.
As he continues to narrate, he reveals that Elliot Chase is not his real name. He had reinvented himself after meeting and moving in with Barbara. His new persona suited him, and it simply stuck. He was no longer the bullied, insecure, little boy, but instead he matured into an adult. Still, both the little boy and the adult do still share the same body. As Eliott relates the rest of the story, which he insists is real, the reader will be tossed and turned, wondering if there is a story within the story, yet to be told. It is obvious that all is not as it seems to be.
What part of this story is fact, and what part is fiction? Who is the villain and who is the hero? Are there any heroes. Is anyone evil? If you take matters into your own hands to stop the evil person, and you are then just as evil, have you not become evil, as well? I think the fury is about choices, secrets, betrayals, unrequited love, evil, mental illness, even insanity, perhaps, but it comes in varying degrees. When a mind fractures, the wind blows through it and the fury is unleashed. There is a sense of unreality that is pervasive, and you will wonder if that is the intent of the narrator or the author. The narrator seems to be living in an alternate reality, at times. As the reader, you are never quite sure of what is real. Everyone is playing a role and becomes a pawn in a real-life drama.