The Isle of Capri juts jaggedly into the Mediterranean, a playground of the rich and a bustling tourist haunt. Every year it plays host to a nest of monstrous vipers…. rotten to the core.

It all starts in July of 1992, when playwright Sarah Lingate goes missing from their holiday villa. The previous evening the wealthy family attend a celebratory dinner where Sarah and her husband Richard reportedly have a disagreement and Richard returns to Casa Malaparte alone.

In the present day, 30 years on from her mother‘s death, Helen Lingate, her boyfriend Freddy, her father Richard, uncle Marcus, aunt Naomi, along with Marcus‘s assistant Lorna are back on Capri for their annual vacation. Helen is straining within the family straight jacket and along with Lorna has hatched a plan to enable her to break free. However, the pair unleash way more than they bargain for. It’s as if they are entering shark filled waters.

If ever there’s a viperish bunch then this is it in the Lingates. Entitled, dangerous, suffocating and controlling but I’ll stop there as it’s best that you meet them for yourself. The characterisation is exemplary, they are so easy to visualise although clearly not easy to like. Even those you think you may like at the start, take my advice and hold that thought. One thing is for certain, they make for riveting reading even if at times my jaw drops at their antics.

Katy Hays does atmosphere terrifically well, that becomes clear to me in The Cloisters, her first book. She brings Capri alive, its sights, sounds, smells, the crowds and she utilises some magnificent locations to great effect in some taut and suspenseful scenes. I’ve been to Capri and in my opinion she absolutely nails it. Yes, it’s beautiful and romantic but the steep cliffs issue kind of threat, the sort where disaster could be but a step away.

The plot from the beginning is tense, mysterious, claustrophobic and conspiratorial. It’s obvious a game of cat and mouse is underway, but the million dollar question is, who is the cat and who are the mice?? Who is a friend and who a foe? This becomes a game of survival. It becomes increasingly intense as my suspicion antenna nearly spins into orbit. I constantly ask myself why would the family keep returning to Capri after what happens to Sarah? That would indeed be telling!

Although this keeps me gripped, reading on and wanting to know the truth if indeed it’s possible to get to it, I do wonder if it gets a bit prolonged?? Whilst I do enjoy most of the clever twists there’s one I do have a question mark against although I don’t see it coming and so kudos for that.

Overall, despite the minor reservations, I do think this is a cracking read and I am thoroughly entertained.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to the publisher for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. The Vipers is a thrilling murder mystery, that had me hooked from start to finish. Katy Hays writes such fantastic villains, it was so hard to guess whodunnit because it could have been anyone. Five stars.

The Vipers takes us to the glittering yet deceptive island of Capri, where the famous Lingate family returns every year to revisit the site of a tragedy that shocked the world. Thirty years ago, playwright Sarah Lingate died at the family’s luxurious villa. Although her death was ruled a tragic accident, the whispers of foul play have never truly faded. Each July, the Lingates return to Capri, determined to uphold their version of events.

But this time, Helen Lingate, the family’s sole heir, has other plans. Tightly controlled by her overbearing father, Helen seeks the help of the family assistant, Lorna Silva, in an attempt to finally free herself from her family's iron grip. However, the Lingates’ seemingly unbreakable unity begins to unravel when an unsettling gift awaits them upon arrival: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

As tensions rise and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened, Helen starts to doubt everyone around her, including her controlling father, her drug-addled aunt Naomi, her distant uncle Marcus, and even Lorna, whose past is shrouded in mystery. With the family at breaking point and the truth threatening to come to light, old grudges and long-hidden secrets emerge, and it becomes clear that the Lingates might not all leave Capri alive.

The Vipers is a gripping, well-written book filled with twists that will keep you guessing until the very end. Just when you think you have it figured out, everything changes, making for a thrilling and unpredictable read. With its vivid setting, intricate family dynamics, and mounting suspense, it’s a must-read for anyone who enjoys a tense, twisty family drama.

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A little disappointed by this book which I didn't enjoy as much as the author's previous work, The Cloisters. For a start, the wealthy family is so far removed from my life that it was hard to empathise with the characters and secondly I was left feeling they rather brought it all on themselves. The setting, on the island of Capri, whilst well described, is also unfamiliar to me.
In the beginning I sympathised with Helen and Lorna and was willing them to succeed, but in the last twenty percent of the book with all the twists and turns, I'd given up on them as much as I had the other characters.
The book relies too much on keeping things from the reader so all the reveals, rather than being a matter of 'why didn't I see that', really are big reveals.
Having said that, the book is well written and plot will keep you guessing until the end if only because a whole lot changes near the end.
With thanks to Netgalley and Transworld, Penguin Random House for an early copy in return for an honest review.

Helen is the daughter of Richard Lingate, second son of a wealthy american"Old Money" family., and currently the only heir. Although she has an enviable lifestyle she feels completely bound in by the family and wants to break free. Thirty years ago her mother died, found at the bottom of the cliffs near their summer holiday villa on Capri. and now the whole family is back there as they are every summer. Helen conceives a plan to br's PA.free which she shares with her friend Lorna, her uncle's PA. They are close to success when Lorna disappears with the money and is found dead at sea a couple of days later. The police start to investigate, not only Lorna's death, but re-open the inquiry into Helen's mother's death too.. The investigation re-opens old wounds and family tensions. The truth will out and nothing we believed about the family at the out set is true. Enjyable follow-up to her first book, The Cloisters.

I have never read anything like it a running monologue interspersed with flashbacks of memory or inspiration an unedited proof a meandering of thought a interrupted conversation hard to follow but interesting in the way that you look out for inspiration in creative thought processes a circular motion of original thought and repeat but the story developing making you think this repeating must be inevitable in how the story develops. I have not finished but I'm intrigued