The Cruise: The gripping glamorous thriller from the author of the Sunday Times bestselling book - The Chalet

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I listened to the full-cast audiobook and all four narrators did an over-the-top job with the narration.

Now I know most modern psychological thrillers have dual timelines, but it still seems jarring when the narrative switches to the Scottish Highlands. The pacing was decent, the few twists were quite clever (if sometimes predictable), and the cruise-ship setting was convincing (as some of you may know, I love a good maritime setting - but equally, a bad one will really p*** me off). The stories in both timelines were engaging, and although the characters were superficial, I still wanted to know what would happen to them at each cliff-hanger, and would have read this in one sitting if I'd had that luxury. The glamorous ship Immanis and a New Year's Eve party that ends with the ship's dancer Lola disappearing. The coast guard is called and the ship is searched but there is no sign of her.This is hard to review in any depth for fear of spoiling something, but I’ll say I am not sure I really liked or connected with the characters. But I’ve found in a thriller that it doesn’t matter if you want to figure out who did it or what is going on and that was the case for me. Who killed Lola and what does this have to do with the secondary plot line. There was a lot of layers to this and it never felt like too much.

A MASSIVE shout out for the audiobook, what a production, I particularly loved the narrator for Antonio - he was fab! This was my first Catherine Cooper book (I have her previous two sitting on my shelves) and I was truly impressed. Her writing is seamless and the plot really had me gripped. I read a lot of psychological thrillers so have pretty much seen (read?) it all, but this one felt unique. There’s a sub plot going on which I absolutely loved. It felt totally different to the main plot and for the life of me I couldn’t see how it was going to come together, but it did so magnificently. I also loved hearing about life on board a cruise ship, a topic i don’t know that much about as I’ve never really fancied that kind of holiday. Even less so now!

Travel Guide

Fast forward 2 weeks and a modest crew are on layover preparing for next trip. Still missing Lola, friends work through their grief, but the body count still rises. This is the second novel I read by this author and after having been impressed with her debut novel The Chalet I couldn’t resist this new mystery set in another secluded location. I’ve not been on a cruise ship yet but the author seemed to know the ins and outs of life on a cruise ship so well and described it so vividly that I almost feel as if I’ve been on one after reading this novel. I LOVED this fun, fast-paced murder mystery. Luxurious surroundings, great characters and dark secrets’ SUZY K QUINN Catherine Cooper is a freelance journalist writing for many national newspapers and magazines, specialising in travel. She also makes regular appearances as a talking head on daytime TV. She lives in France with her husband and two teenage children. Although the book boasted eye-rolling moments, overall, it was an intriguing and entertaining read.