The Fury

Elliot speaks directly to the reader, warning that what they’ve read about the story he’s about to tell may not be the truth. He introduces himself as both the narrator and one of the characters in the story. He recognizes that the story sounds familiar—seven characters trapped on the island, and one of them is a murderer—evoking Agatha Christie; however, he reminds the reader that this is a story about real people. Instead of a whodunit, it is a whydunit that examines what led to the murder and why people do the things they do. He promises to tell the truth and explains that even though he wasn’t present for all the scenes, he can rely on his knowledge of the characters to imagine what happened. He reassures the reader that if he misrepresents the facts, it is not deliberate. He is going to start his story with Lana.

Lana is a retired movie star, famous for her beauty and charisma. She was hugely successful until suddenly, at 40, she quit acting and moved to London with her son, Leo. After she retired, she felt lost and purposeless until she met and married her second husband, Jason Miller.

Lana is walking under an overcast sky one day when she decides to take her family and friends to Greece for the sunshine. She decides to call her friend Kate Crosby.

Kate is rehearsing a new play, and it’s not going well. Elliot speculates that this is because of Kate’s personality—she is brilliant, chaotic, and temperamental and has an alcohol and drug addiction. Kate grew up in London and acts exclusively in the theater. She and Lana are good friends despite being opposites in both looks and disposition: Kate dresses and acts to attract attention, while Lana does the opposite. They met 30 years earlier on a movie set in London, and they’ve been friends ever since.

Kate is playing Clytemnestra in a production of Agamemnon, and they struggle through the rest of the rehearsal before she returns to her dressing room. She takes a Xanax and opens a bottle of wine. When Lana calls and invites her to go to Greece, Kate readily agrees.

Lana’s first husband, Otto, bought the Greek island for her as a gift. He was a wealthy Hollywood producer, much older than her, and died a few years after they got married. The small island, called Aura, is off the coast of mainland Greece near Mykonos. Lana visits each year, and a caretaker, Nikos, lives on the island and maintains the property.

Elliot describes the island for the reader, including the ruin, which is an ancient amphitheater. Lana and Otto often put on performances at the ruin with their guests, but after his death, she discontinued the tradition. Other than the ruin, the only structures on the island are the main house and Niko’s cottage. The island is beautiful, but when the wind comes in, the weather can be brutal. Elliot comments that during this story was the first time he was on the island when the winds came.

Elliot tells the reader about his childhood—his father was abusive, and his mother was addicted to alcohol. He was often neglected and grew up without affection from his parents. As a child, he was different and hated it, but he now realizes that it was a good thing because it led him to the theater. That was where he realized that he could, and should, change everything about himself and leave his old self behind. As an adult, however, he still struggles with intimate relationships and being physically demonstrative.

When the story begins, Elliot is still receiving accolades for his first play. He ignores the gossip about theft and plagiarism, understanding that it is because of his long-standing relationship with the famous novelist Barbara West. Elliot lived with Barbara, who was much older than him, acting as her companion, assistant, and even servant until she died. She left him her mansion but none of her money, and Elliot wrote the play as an act of revenge. Its success upset her fans, but the highlight of Elliot’s life was attending his premiere with Lana as his date and receiving a standing ovation.

Kate and Elliot are on the same flight to Greece. She tries unsuccessfully to avoid sitting with him because she doesn’t like him. Kate is hungover, and Elliot produces miniature vodka bottles from his bag. After they have a drink, he asks how her play rehearsals are going. She insists that they are going well, even after he insinuates that he’s heard differently.

Elliot met Kate through parties at Barbara’s house before he ever met Lana. She intimidates him but also makes him laugh more than Lana, who is serious by nature. Elliot believes that he and Kate would have been good friends if Kate hadn’t seen him as a threat to her own friendship with Lana. Elliot tells the reader that he is a bit afraid of Kate, and as it turns out, he was right to be.

On the water taxi to Aura, the island, Elliot notices the sky getting darker. Against the darkening sky, the island is both beautiful and ominous.

As they approach the island, another boat leaves, carrying Babis, the local restauranteur, and several housekeepers. Lana, her son Leo, and the housekeeper Agathi are already at the house, and they all have a glass of champagne. Jason, Lana’s husband, enters the room and, not seeing Elliot, comments that he is glad Elliot isn’t there. Elliot doesn’t like Jason and knows that Agathi doesn’t either.

Kate goes to unpack in the summerhouse, where she always stays. She is upset about what she is on the island to do but convinces herself to keep moving forward. She looks through her bag for something to make her feel better and eventually remembers a bag of cocaine that she left hidden inside on her last visit. She pulls out her credit card and dumps the cocaine out on the table.

Agathi cleans fish in the sink, thinking about her grandmother, who was rumored to be a witch. She can tell that Lana is in a better mood since coming to the island and hopes that the short vacation will help.

Agathi prides herself on running a smooth household, but everything was running late today. Babis was still there when they arrived—he hates Agathi because she left his restaurant to work for Lana and Otto. Agathi is entranced by Lana, willing to follow her anywhere. She fancies herself as Lana’s closest friend, or at least the person who knows her the best.

As she finishes cleaning the fish, Nikos comes in the back door with sea urchins, Lana’s favorite, for dinner. Although she accepts them, the gesture makes her nervous—she doesn’t like the way Nikos looks at Lana.

Nikos has been caretaker on the island for 25 years. He thinks of the island as his and resents the disruption to his life. He occasionally goes to Mykonos for a drink, and his presence prompts them to talk about Lana and Aura, which they believe is cursed. They also make fun of Jason, whom Nikos dislikes. He considers Jason a fake who doesn’t deserve Lana’s love. Nikos knows that he will stay on the island for the rest of his life—he believes he is no longer suited for anything else.

While walking back to his cottage, Nikos sees a wasp nest with wasps swarming around it. He doesn’t want to destroy it, so he decides to hang some fresh rabbit meat outside his cottage to lure them away from the house. As he is debating what to do, he watches Kate swimming in the pool nearby. Jason approaches her without seeing Nikos and confronts her about coming to the island. Nikos has the sense that someone else is watching the scene from the woods.

Elliot takes two glasses of champagne to Lana’s bedroom, and they chat while she gets dressed for dinner. Jason interrupts them, annoyed at Elliot’s presence. Elliot tells the reader that Jason doesn’t understand Elliot’s relationship with Lana because Jason doesn’t understand platonic friendship between women and men. Elliot believes that he and Lana are soulmates.

After he leaves, Elliot eavesdrops and hears Jason trying to get Lana to sign something. She puts him off, wanting to run the paperwork past her lawyer. Elliot reflects that Jason should’ve waited until later in the evening, after a few cocktails, to bring it up.

Kate watches Agathi and Lana prepare dinner. Leo comes in but quickly leaves when Kate teases him about a girlfriend. After he leaves, she wonders aloud if he is too attached to Lana for a girlfriend.

They eat dinner outside and sit around the firepit afterward. Kate brings Agathi’s crystal outside. The crystal is believed to accurately answer questions about the future. They all take turns asking it questions, except Jason, who leaves early. Elliot looks back fondly on that night, especially knowing that less than a day later, one of them would be dead.

Since that night, Elliot has come to believe that as Heracleitus said, “Character is fate” (59). He believes that he wound up where he is because of his childhood, although he spent many years avoiding thinking about it. Once he did seek therapy, his therapist told him that because of how he grew up, he remains focused on the outside world, watching for warning signs, and focusing on other people’s experience, not his own.

Elliot’s therapist also helped him to stop ignoring the child within him that suffered. Once he understood that the child trapped inside him is the source of his fear and anxiety, he decided to stop ignoring the child. As a result, he began to notice every person’s inner child and have more compassion for them. This compassion, however, doesn’t extend to Jason—he can’t see past Jason’s actions to the history behind them.

The next morning, Elliot wakes to a gunshot and realizes Jason is hunting. After a cup of coffee, he joins Lana, Leo, and Nikos in the garden. Jason is hunting pigeons, and his gunshots continue to surprise them. Elliot notices Nikos watching Lana intently and realizes he is in love with her. This makes sense to him because everyone in Lana’s life is in love with her.

Leo wakes Kate up by banging on her door, reminding her that she suggested a picnic the night before. She is very hungover and worries that she might’ve said something she shouldn’t have. She washes half a Xanax down with leftover champagne, grabs her Agamemnon script, and heads for the beach. On the way, she passes Nikos’s cottage and sees a swarm of wasps swarming a dead animal carcass on a stump outside his door. She notices Nikos in the window staring at her, and it makes her shiver.

Elliot, Lana, and Leo make their way to the beach with a picnic hamper. Elliot and Lana swim out to the raft, while Leo stays on the shore. Leo eats a sandwich and reads Stanislavsky’s book on acting. He hasn’t told Lana yet, but Leo plans on becoming an actor. Hearing Jason’s gun repeatedly, Leo, who has recently become vegan, gets angry and decides to steal Jason’s guns.

Jason is at the ruin alone, practicing his shooting with a tin can. Kate arrives, and he asks again why she came. She points out that she is still Lana’s friend but warns him that she thinks Lana knows about their affair. He considers telling her about the trouble he is in but kisses her instead. He has the feeling they are being watched.

The group plans to go to Mykonos for dinner, but the weather is turning stormy and Agathi advises against it. Elliot is alone in the living room, making a martini the way Noël Coward would drink it, when Leo passes by with an armload of guns. He follows Leo to the kitchen, where the boy puts the guns in a chest. Elliot goes to Jason’s gun room and is amused to find the racks empty. He finishes his martini while he decides whether to tell Lana.

Everyone is distracted and tense on the boat to Mykonos except Elliot, who is in good spirits. The wind is picking up. At the restaurant, everyone recognizes Lara. She is gracious about the attention, but Kate is tense and jealous. She loses her temper and confronts Lana, who remains unperturbed. When Elliot toasts Lana, Kate’s reaction makes him realize that she is angry with him, too. She attacks him until Lana intervenes, and something unspoken passes between the two women before Kate backs down.

Kate goes to the bathroom, and when she returns, she is clearly high. Lana tries to defuse the situation by complimenting Kate on her red wrap, but the other woman is not mollified. Elliot tells the reader that this is the moment when the weekend starts going bad. The wind is picking up and the weather is turning.

The boat trip back to the island is difficult in the increasing wind, and they are all wet when they get to the island. Elliot and Leo share a joint on the veranda while Kate has a drink in the living room. Leo wanders off the veranda down the lawn, and Elliot warns him to be careful in the increasing wind.

Leo walks down to the beach, feeling mellow. He feels like someone is watching him but can’t see anyone. For a moment, he thinks he sees a monster, but it turns out to be a tree and some brush. Suddenly, he feels ill and clutches his stomach.

While everyone goes to dinner on Mykonos, Agathi stays home and cleans the birds that Jason shot. She listens to the wind, remembering that her grandmother always loved when the violent winds came in. She tears up but then wipes them away and refocuses on the task. She wants to finish before they come home—she senses trouble coming.

Later, Agathi wakes to the sound of shouting. She opens the door and sees Jason in the hallway, looking for Lana. He pushes Kate out of the way, and Agathi shuts her door again. She doesn’t want to get involved. She sleeps for a few more hours before she is woken again, this time by gunshots.

She runs out of the house and toward the ruin. She can hear footsteps running nearby but is focused on her destination. When she reaches the ruin, she sees Lana’s body wrapped in Kate’s red shawl. Leo is holding her, screaming and refusing to let go. Elliot takes her pulse and tells the rest of them that Lana is dead.