The word Apex is defined as “the top or highest part of something...” In Tyler Michael’s so-named book, it could refer to several different aspects: from the beautiful views described in the isolated area where it is mostly set to the almost Darwinian struggle by the contestants and their opponents to survive. . What it actually refers to is the name of a company that has created a new and incredibly dangerous reality game.

On one side of the game’s ledger are 3 businessmen, code named Mr. White, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Black, who have paid large sums to compete to try and gain a purse that can change their lives even more substantially. On the other side are 3 friends, two men and one woman, who are taking a camping trip to celebrate before launching back into their normal lives when they are abducted and dropped onto an island to serve as “prey” for the businessmen in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.

The game seems like a much more intense version of Discovery’s show “Naked and Afraid,” with the dearth of survival items provided to the kidnapped campers, scores similar to the show’s Primitive Survival Rating (PSR) assigned to the businessmen, and the time limit of 36 hours to complete the game’s mission and reach the extraction point. The action revs up pretty quickly, and at the book’s Apex, if you will, it’s almost literally heart-stopping.

This book is one of my top 3 in 2020, and I’ve read approximately 60 titles this year. The characters are very well formed and believable, providing a lot of depth and difference in how they cope with this dangerous environment. The woman, Kate, is clearly the most savvy, but will she indeed be able to rise to the top? The tension of this question drives one to keep turning pages to see what is around the next corner. I would highly recommend this to anyone, but especially to those who find themselves glued to reality shows like the one mentioned above. In the about section, the author says he is “a film and video game enthusiast who is seeking to bring a similar mix of excitement and pace to fiction”. For a debut, this novel admirably hits that mark.