The Pledge

Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

AFTER climbing the ‘slippery slope’ of her legal career to a level higher and more dizzying than she ever expected, ambitious barrister Thea Harrington receives a mysterious invitation to join a gathering of the world’s super-rich on a remote paradise island.

But in the space of just four days, Thea will discover ‘what the untouchable are truly capable of, with no one to hold them to account’ and that even murder is not off limits when it comes to power play.

After spending sixteen years as an ecologist, Sarah Yarwood-Lovett (pictured below) has found a new career as author of suspense-filled destination crime mysteries and, always eager to find ways to make big tech companies meet climate change responsibilities, she pens stories with an intriguing ecological twist. And this new escapist page-turner – featuring a spectacular collision of the super-rich, the political elite and the celebrity world – exposes the stratospherically wealthy at their worst, and a plot tingling with suspense and emotional intensity.

Lawyer Thea has just won the biggest case of her professional life, letting the government ‘off its ethical hook,’ but it is controversial and hasn’t gone down well with climate activists who have reacted in ‘a cacophony of fury’ and accused her of a ‘conflict of interest’ as her husband is the Energy Minster.

As a young intern, Thea had always thought she would use her powers for good and that it was possible to ‘steer the juggernaut course of economy on to ethical tracks.’

That evening she receives a mysterious cryptic invitation from the OneT Club. She deciphers the message but can’t believe it's real and yet the next moment she is lured into accepting and finds herself on a jet, being whisked off to the privately owned Caribbean island of St Innocent.

But this is no ordinary holiday. Thea’s fellow guests are some of the world’s richest people… billionaires, tech bros, even royalty, and all in ‘paradise’ to sign a global deal. Their host is a woman called Olga Helgesdotter who is uncomfortably ‘knowing’ and has an untouchable ‘rules-don’t-apply’ level of power. And as the guests arrive, each of them is challenged by Olga to make The Pledge… to give half their fortunes to fight climate change.

So what has Thea sleepwalked into, and why is she there? Too late, she discovers that there is no escape and that underneath the billionaire lifestyle is a game of survival of the fittest. And by the morning, their manipulative and misguided host is dead and so is any hope of getting off the island. Thea must navigate secrets, lies and scandals, and as guests are picked off one by one, suspicions turn on her. She’s not just relying on her courtroom wiles to win a case now… she’s trapped on the island with a killer and fighting for her life. But the murderer isn’t the only threat on the island… and escape means facing her worst fears.

Yarwood-Lovett has fun with this wicked tale of one defiant woman taking on the merciless might and menace of an ill-assorted group of what can only be described as some of the world’s filthy rich billionaires who are asked to hand over a big chunk of their wealth to help save the planet.

The result is adrenaline-fuelled murder and mayhem as devious Olga’s grand scheme unravels in spectacular style and Thea finds herself facing not just moral dilemmas but questions of loyalty, identity, self-sacrifice and ambition. With plot twists at every juncture, secrets spilling out like bees from a hive, and suspense mounting with every turn of the page, this is a trip to paradise it would be hell to miss!
(Zaffre, paperback, £9.99)