The ever-growing popularity of reality competition programming has made for some nice psychological thrillers over the past few years. Lisa Unger now takes a stab at this subject with her new novel, CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10.

When Adele’s son enters her into an extreme televised game of hide-and-seek, she readily accepts. Adele is a former competitive runner, and the winner's purse is a cool million dollars, which her family certainly could use in the wake of her absentee husband. He slipped away following a round of corporate embezzlement (think Bernie Madoff), which left many people bankrupt and seriously changed the lives of Adele and her teenage children.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10 is just about what you would expect from a Lisa Unger novel --- complicated characters, dangerous settings, and plot twist after plot twist."

The only issue is that the program is being produced by Extreme Games and Insane Challenges. This company is currently stinging from various allegations attached to the fact that a young contestant literally disappeared during an event at a supposed haunted house in upstate New York. Online fans and trolls alike have continuously blasted the company's owner, Maverick “Mav” Dillan. Not only is he under criminal suspicion, he also may be playing his way out of a takeover bid from a rival company as a result of the negative publicity.

The site of this new competition is Falcao Island, which is in the middle of the ocean. Adele is one of four contestants; the others are competition veterans. She must defeat not only them to win the prize but also the elements as a monster storm is fast approaching and threatening to shut down the entire production. Mav makes the bold decision to play on, hoping that the game will be over before they are washed away.

The program is being held in a long-abandoned resort hotel that was once called the Enchantments. It brings with it all of the dangers that a location such as this one contains, and it looks like it would have been better suited for expert urban explorers than reality show competitors.

The story is told by multiple narrators and from varied points of view, which keeps readers on edge and helps add to the suspense that is being built. When one of the producers ends up getting killed shortly after having a public disagreement with Mav, the activities on Falcao become even deadlier. Mav claims to have had no hand in the murder, which means that someone has followed the crew out to this treacherous island to enact revenge. With so many online trolls publicly rooting for Mav's demise, it is difficult to point a finger at any one potential suspect.

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10 is just about what you would expect from a Lisa Unger novel --- complicated characters, dangerous settings, and plot twist after plot twist. It was a pleasure to spend time with her as she put the competitive reality show genre under her literary microscope and spun it into something formidable.