This book has received some very unkind later reviews on Amazonuk. I don’t understand why.
I enjoyed it and am giving it an 8 out of 10.
Yes, the main character was obsessed with sleep deprivation, and the point was hammered home a tad as she tended towards whining, but I didn’t find her unlikeable. I agree that the author described the lavish ‘cliché’ of the cruise boat’s (too small to be a ship) decor—but if you choose to set your story on a cruiser, surely you have to describe the experience. I loved it and lived vicariously through the description—until it turned nasty, by which point I felt her claustrophobia.
I found myself taking more air into my lungs in the confined areas. Come on, that’s clever writing. I don’t understand why the author would choose not to capitalise her name on the cover. Is it a humility marketing ploy? I afford Ms Ware the luxury of capitalisation. She deserves it.
What I loved about this book was the realisation of hopelessness when you are a target on a small boat/ship in the middle of the North Sea. There was no possibility of escape until the boat docked. She had to get through the night, suspecting everybody. The tension was excellent, and during the escape scenes, I felt time running out and experienced a level of stress and quickening of my reading before the engine re-started.
No Spoilers, did she make it off, or did she run out of time? The purpose of the cruise was to see the Northern Lights. I would like the Author to have made more of them. By the time we got a glimpse, we were hard in action, and it was glossed over with hardly a mention.
I’d been a prisoner in an under-sea-level cabin for three days and was still in terrible danger, but I wanted to see the sky. I recommend this book. I thought it was a cracker and does exactly what it says on the thriller-can. Loved it.
