I received an ARC of this book with thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia via NetGalley.

Whilst the mysterious, assumed murder of Alison (Claire's eighteen year old sister) on the island Saint X happens when Claire is seven years old, the bulk of this book centres on the aftermath of this mystery when Claire is twenty-five. She and Clive, (originally a suspect in the murder of Alison) are still haunted by the unknown and Claire is determined to uncover what happened on that night so many years ago.

We uncover that Claire is obsessed not only with the mystery of her sisters death, but also consumed with losing a sister that she never really knew. Through the perspective of Clive we unearth all that he has lost being connected to this mystery and all the questions he seeks answers to that simply cannot be answered as he lives his life in New York.

This was completely not what I was expecting. I headed in assuming I'd receive the standard mystery/thriller blueprint but was pleasantly surprised. Saint X is written with quite a visceral prose. Schaitkin has actually given us a literary thriller, in which the eerie imagery from her words really brings you into the lives of the characters and gives you a true and complete sense of who they were and who they are trying to be. Essentially this is a story about the people left behind after an unsolved mysterious death and the impact that this has on every facet of their haunted lives.