Because let’s face it—if a movie is good and was based on a book, then chances are the novel-form is better. In this one we have a bunch of wealthy society wives who visit a new resort on a jungle island and are forced into hiding in the jungle by hostilities on the island. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. Alongside the Brontes – none of this will set you up for a lifetime of unmet expectations quite like Wuthering Heights). It’s written at almost a frantic pace that got the adrenaline flowing straight from the jump and didn’t let up until the end.

Another of Winslow’s books that I hope to read soon that is to be adapted is Satori and will have Di Caprio starring in it. The first time was about ten years ago and my children (now grown) remember me reading exciting parts of the book to them.Chon prefers to fight while "peaceful" Ben would rather run, but when Baja raises the stakes, both boys are sucked into a wild and fiendishly brutal ride worthy of the title. I haven't seen Oliver Stone's film version of this yet, but he seems like the perfect person to direct it, with all the subtlety of a coked-up bull in a china closet. I also noticed this time, more than any other (probably due to listening to the audio interview with Tom Holt I linked above) how many massively bad things tend to happen because of very small causes. Once again, Shirley Conran has created a novel with all the elements her millions of fans love On a remote tropical island, five beautiful, glamorous women are suddenly thrust into an adventure that.

Although the truth is it’s probably still not unusual to think these things, it is (thankfully) less acceptable to say them now. Winslow is a brilliant stylist, unflinching in detail, and his books jab a fountain pen in the eye of anyone who can read one of his tomes and state with conviction that crime fiction isn't literature. At that age I was still dipping into the occasional Blyton/ Dahl/ Ransome too, whilst also developing a huge love for Stephen King. Anyone interested should read it and not listen to an audio version because even the layout of the words on the page becomes part of the structure of the story. Then getting all pissed off because he was overlooked AGAIN so he goes on to continue writing his, "I'll show them" novel where he proves he's SO tapped in, the kids who never gave him the time of day now wish they did.Interesting and suspense-filled throughout the book, once the author gets you introduced to all of the characters and their marriages, lives, personalities, quirks. Lorenza had only to watch her mother stroke her six black cats – sinuous, small panthers – to know that she loved with her hands and longed for a grandchild to cuddle. The story follows the messed-up three-way love affair of Ben, Chon, and O (short for Ophelia, of course). Some of it is stream of consciousness, but not such that you would get lost in it like in Finnegan’s Wake.

Considering that they all start out as spoilt, ultra-rich wives who never did a day's work in their lives, the title is very appropriate. The real break point Winslow describes, however, is the one between an all-too-American “religion of narcissism” and the inevitable implosion caused by outside forces.

It just could have been so much better if the author had more faith in his story and worried less about being cute. I definitely need to get my hands on more of his material and soon; he's that damn good (forgive me, I appear to be thinking out loud). Now they walk around like white frat boys in Bed-Stuy, talking tough to show they aren’t scared as the urine streams down their chinos into their cordovans. The only quibble I have is an overuse of acronyms (AQ for al-qaeda, for example, or DC meaning the US federal government). But all is not lost for Ben, Chon and O: Loving themselves is not enough, but each other, the world?