by Ruth Ware

...nothing short of divine intervention would save me, and I’d had bad luck enough these past few days to make me think that if there was a God up there, he didn’t like me very much.

I was not a fan of the one other book I read by Ruth Ware, The Death of Mrs. Westaway. I was generous in giving that one 3 stars. I’m not going to go into the details of this mystery/thriller except to say that it’s about an unstable young woman on a private cruise who thinks she witnesses a murder in the next cabin. Except the cabin was supposed to be empty and there is no evidence that there was ever any such person on the ship. Kind of like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. This one though, I thought was a pretty good part mystery part thriller. I didn’t guess what was going on until it was revealed. It was a good little surprise, and there were more surprises to come. The main bad guy/girl made sense as did the motive. I was constantly going back and forth revisiting characters and timelines, which wasn’t exactly something in the book’s favor. There were a lot of characters/suspects and the timeline was somewhat confusing. If I had listened to it on audible, I would have been completely lost. Some have compared it to Agatha Christie, and I understand that, as there is a large pool of suspects in a confined space. Who is the killer? Who is the victim? What is the motive? We’re pretty sure our heroine, Lo, did witness a murder even though she was not firing on all 4 cylinders at the time (or, let’s face it, what would be the point?). It was also a thriller as our heroine’s life is in danger, nobody believes her, and threatening things continue to occur, mostly in the form of evidence disappearing, no safe place to be had, and no way to communicate with the sane safe world. At one point, life-threatening danger moves from vague and suspected, to immediate, sure, and certain. I loved the ending and the twists at the end though it was always a hoped-for possibility.

I didn’t really love the heroine, but she improves after she stops drinking. Before that, I almost put it down because I have read too many stories with female alcoholics as the main character. They are hard to avoid. Maybe I should make more of an effort. Even sober however she is not the crispiest chip in the bag. There is a lot of dwelling on her sufferings as well which got tiresome, mainly because they were mostly of her own making. Not that she was entirely without some gumption and smarts. A lot of unanswered questions and things that did not make sense or pass the sniff test have been noted. I did not have a lot of problems with the plot, but I will mention two things that bothered me. A lot turns on Lo borrowing someone’s mascara. Who borrows someone’s mascara let alone a complete stranger’s? The other problem was the identity of one of the two bodies found. An identifying characteristic* proves the body is one person and one person only but then it turns out to be not that person, and the identifying characteristic that was false is not explained. So that was a big no-no.

The ending made up for a lot though, and it was a clever premise. And the writing mostly kept me engaged. I appreciated the flashes of humor in this one which were singularly lacking in “Westaway.” However, if she hasn’t already, Ms. Ware should try harder to plug up inconsistencies and make things just a little more air-tight. Mysteries are inevitably going to be scrutinized, and they need to stand up and bear it. It wouldn’t be that hard. The mascara thing might take some thought though.

*Spoiler*

*(head shorn, not bald)