Book Review: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10
by Ruth Ware

Publication date: January 26th 2017
Publisher:  Vintage (first published June 30th 2016)
Pages: 368

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Summary:

This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship.

A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse.

Except things don’t go as planned.

Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat.

Exhausted and emotional, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a mistake—either that, or she is now trapped on a boat with a murderer…

Source: Goodreads

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Thoughts:

I’m trying to pick up more books by authors I have enjoyed in the past, so after enjoying Ruth Ware‘s “In a Dark, Dark Wood“, I decided to give this one a go.

Lo Blacklock is a journalist working for a travel magazine and she’s been invited to join the maiden voyage of luxury cruise liner ‘The Aurora Borealis’. Sounds perfect, right?

Having just been a victim of a home break-in, she’s a little on edge and has had trouble sleeping, so when the wining and dining on the cruise is in full flow, Lo finds herself drinking a little too much. Alone in her room that night she hears a loud splash, like something heavy being thrown overboard. A body, perhaps? Lo reports her suspicions to security, but no one believes her.

“Was it really possible she was dead? But the alternative was not much better. Because if she wasn’t, the only other possibility – and suddenly I wasn’t sure if it was better or worse – was that I was going mad.” 

Author Ruth Ware built suspense really well and for much of the book I was on the edge of my seat and didn’t really know where the story was going to end. With all the varied guests and staff on the ship, this felt like a who-dunnit style story and I was playing the detective myself, trying to predict who or what it could have been. The story was mostly well paced and meant that this was a quick read for me.

The last third of the book, however, couldn’t keep my attention quite as much. I found there was a bit too much explanation of Lo’s thoughts and worries and a little less action to keep the story moving. The action that there was felt a little strange and at times out of place and I’m not sure I believe that some of the ending is actually plausible.

My lack of enjoyment towards the end did spoil the read for me a fair amount, as I was sure this was going to be another 5 stars for Ware. Out of the two I’ve read so far I preferred her debut thriller, but will be definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her work going forward.

Overall rating: “The Woman in Cabin 10” started strong and was full of suspense but I began to lose interest in the last third as things took as slightly strange turn. It’s 3 stars from me!

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See my other reviews of books by Ruth Ware here:

• In a Dark, Dark Wood

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