The journey to me reading this book was a funny one. I accompanied my husband to a birthday party for a classmate, which was held at said classmate’s childhood friend’s apartment. At said party, I got to talking about books with the partner of the childhood friend, as you do when you don’t know anyone at a party but you see a good-looking bookshelf, and then they, a complete stranger, loaned me this book. Because let’s be real: book people are the BEST people. I’d never read Ruth Ware but heard good things about her thrillers and was in the market for a tasty thrill ride and that’s exactly what Ware delivers. This would be an excellent summer book to take with you on vacation…as long as that vacation is not on a cruise.
In this book, Lo Blacklock is a journalist assigned to cover the inaugural journey of a boutique luxury cruise liner: this could be her big break, if she can keep it together. Convinced she heard someone fall overboard in the night, after seeing a mysterious woman that no one else can identify aboard, she begins to question her mind as she searches for answers. We are meant to sympathize with her but she doesn’t have authenticity as a character for me to be on her side. She is reminiscent of the lead in an early 2000s rom-com, the accident-prone journalist with a love of liquor and a bit of a cold heart, and not much else going on. Plus there is even an ex of hers on board the ship which lends a bit of a “will they won’t they” angle. I don’t mind an unlikable female character, but Lo was too tropey with not as much substance as I craved. But it was all in good fun.
Though I had guessed the broad strokes of the overall “whodunnit” the details of the who/why were a bit of a surprise and I had fun watching it all unravel and become clear. It was exactly as promised, a fun thriller. I liked it, I’ll definitely read more Ware but I’ll be saving her wares (see what I did there?) for summertime and my hammock – the two will go together like Lo and a cocktail.