The Cruise

The Cruise by Catherine Cooper is a book full of the unexpected.

Set on a luxurious cruise ship, dancer Lola goes missing on New Year's Eve. A passenger is believed to have seen a body go overboard and when Lola is discovered missing, and every other passenger and member of staff is accounted for, it doesn't take much to conclude what happened. Two weeks later when the ship is out of service, laid up with a skeleton crew, more people start disappearing. It seems that no-one is safe and that there may be a killer onboard.

I love a good thriller and this book was exactly that. There were so many twists that I didn't see coming which added to the pace of the novel and my overall enjoyment. What I hadn't anticipated is that the novel goes back in time and there are two stories running parallel. This blew my mind as I was always trying to piece together any connections, trying to get ahead of the author. I failed on all counts but it made for one hell of a page-turner! When all the pieces did fall into place it was a highly satisfying, shocking read which I absolutely adored.

Catherine Cooper definitely knows how to spin a story, hooking the reader immediately, slowly feeding them snippets of information at a time and then dropping twisty bombs to shatter preconceived ideas and opening up other avenues of exploration. If you haven't read any books by this author I highly recommend them, especially if you are looking for a quick punchy thriller.

Many thanks to Cooper for getting me out of my reading slump with this gripping read.