This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Debs Carr
When Rob and Anna pay to travel on Kim and Owen’s yacht, they expect their sailing trip in the Caribbean to be relaxing and fun. However, it turns out not to be the idyllic trip they’d expected, but something much darker. Anna is quite uptight, she resents her boyfriend Rob for wanting to travel with Kim and Owen on their yacht and finds it difficult to take to Kim. She isn’t sure what to make of Owen, but he and Kim come across as a devoted couple. It soon transpires that Owen never sleeps and for some reason the only sharp knife on the ship is the one Kim keeps zipped into her money-belt.
This psychological thriller builds as the two couples slowly get to know each other and underlying tensions are exposed. They spend time together on the small vessel and resentments begin to unravel the relationships as they cope with an unexpected storm. The shared experiences change the tone of the group and they find that sharing the cramped space intensifies the claustrophobia that each are experiencing.
Owen’s issues intrigued me, as well as Kim’s determination to protect him, from whatever troubled him. I did initially struggle to keep up with who was thinking what as the story hopped from one character to the next throughout. However, as I read on, I became more gripped by the story and involved with what each character was thinking and experiencing. I desperately wanted to discover what was behind the nightmares Owen was so desperate to avoid and who exactly were Owen and Kim, and what or who they were avoiding.
This book is very different to Jane Lythell’s previous one, but none the less intriguing. It is a dark, mesmerising story where the underlying tension builds slowly until all four lives are changed for ever after one traumatic night and how they deal with the repercussions of what it had meant to them all. I look forward to Jane Lythell’s next book with anticipation.8/10