Journalist Lo Blacklock isn't in the best frame of mind to take up her potentially career-advancing opportunity of a luxury press-launch trip on board the luxurious boutique cruise yacht Aurora Bourealis after her flat is broken into while she is at home just before the trip is due to begin. Given the chance to cancel, she instead decides that it will be a chance to recover from the trauma and is determined to go. Except it turns out that a peaceful luxurious voyage is far from what actually happens. Woken in the night by screams from the adjoining cabin, Lo sees a body thrown overboard. But no-one believes her, and the ship's records show that no-one is missing.
Lo isn't persuaded, however, and she continues to ask questions. A dangerous path to follow for someone on a small ship with a murderer.
I'd not seen the Netflix film before reading this book. In fact, I picked it up in a shop and read the first chapter before having to buy it! It's very well written. The tension and sense of claustrophobia increases throughout and the author is an absolute master of keeping the reader guessing. I had no idea how things would end up! The little interspersions of 'social media' and news reports are very cleverly done too.
The problem, for me at least, is that the heroine is not very likeable for about the first three quarters of the book. Yes, she's been burgled and that would jangle anyone's nerves, but she is permanently exhausted (as we are frequently told), drinks ridiculous amounts (to a point which surely no sane person would be doing on a work cruise this important to their career), and - talking of career - doesn't do the most basic things in terms of preparation for the trip, and seems awkward, gauche and spiky around most of those she meets, which shows people skills which seem seriously lacking for someone in her profession. She really doesn't come across as someone who is a high flyer, with ambition, at the top of her game. Even when making allowances for the break-in at the start.
The book carries the endorsement 'The Agatha Christie of our generation', and although I would personally disagree with this as it's much more 'thriller' than 'cosy mystery' and the heroine certainly doesn't have the sharpness or intelligence of one of Christie's leads, it is however a page turning read which I was eager to pick up whenever I had time to spare.
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