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Synopsis
Darcy Arlen, a beautiful young American, is dangerously bored. Though she's on a very pricey tour of Europe, she's already sick of museums and ruins, and eager for distraction. After slipping away from the group one afternoon, she meets Will, an attractive young drifter who carries about him the scent of true adventure.
Will invites Darcy back to the hostel where he's been staying and introduces her to Justine, his darkly seductive lover and mentor. Justine, a master of the con, senses a grand opportunity in this amenable blonde. She and Will manage to turn things so that Darcy not only accompanies them to Venice, but finances the trip as well. There they meet Maurice, a shady figure who offers them a job smuggling an important package to Greece.
As the threesome travels across Europe toward the island of Crete, what unfolds is an astonishing tale of shifting alliances and shocking betrayals, of sexual obsession and mercenary enterprise, of conflicting passions and fateful choices. When the adventurers finally reach the village of Matala with the package in hand, they learn that what they have delivered is more valuable, and the repercussions of their involvement more terrifying, than they ever could have imagined.
Endlessly surprising and altogether riveting, Matala is an unforgettable novel about the intersection of love and ruthlessness.
Caroline Mann - Library Journal
Darcy, a rich, world-weary teenager on a European tour, meets Will, a boy she thinks she recognizes from her high school. Will, world weary in a different way-the down-on-your-luck kind-has been traveling for several years with Justine and has been schooled in the art of the scam. They con Darcy, separating her from her tour group, and through a series of circumstances, she becomes a part of their group, funding most of their travels. The older and more experienced Justine is the mastermind, but Darcy is easily her match intellectually. Holden's latest novel (after The Jazz Bird) is riddled with cat-and-mouse games between the two. Justine's shady connections in the drug world set up a situation that culminates in a life-threatening encounter, but the real story centers on the emotional void in each of the three characters and how their chance meeting sets them on the road to healing. Holden has written a fast-paced novel with compelling and complex characters. Some of the graphic sexual material is probably best suited to older readers. Recommended for large public libraries.