The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Published January 3^rd 2017 by Simon and Schuster

The Woman In Cabin 10 set the standard high for 2017 thrillers with it’s first release. I loved this book so much, I wanted to do a ‘reread’ alongside the audio book

. Ruth Ware pulls the reader into an intricate mystery, filled with loveable characters and an original world. We are instantly brought into the life of Lo Blackwood, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine. We find her in a place of discontent; she is frustrated with work, personal relationships and her home life. Lo is not the picture-perfect protagonist that we have come to expect from thrillers.

Lo’s luck seems to have changed when she is given the assignment of her career: a week on a luxury cruise filled with peers she admires and the promise of northern lights aboard the Aurora. What could go wrong aboard a posh liner on the high seas?

The first few days are flawless, Lo is living the life she dreams of. As a reader we know this is too good be true, our dear protagonist cannot her happy ending so quickly. The maiden voyage of the Aurora will take 10 passengers around the Norwegian fjords in class. Of course, we know her luck is about to turn sour once again. On a frigid, windy night, Lo witnesses what she believes to be a woman thrown overboard from the balcony beside her suite. Frantic, she checks the next room only to find cabin 9 is empty. 

After reporting the incident and discovering that all passengers and crew are accounted for, the reader is placed in a tricky spot; was our protagonist just imagining this or was it real? 

Ware articulates each miniscule detail, and the story comes to life like a film reel in our mind. We feel the panic, the fear and the mania that Lo is experiencing. We watch, as an omniscient bystander to her woes and struggles.  

Thrillers with female protagonists seem to be the hot trend in adult fiction and it is hard for readers to come across original stories. The Woman In Cabin 10 is refreshingly different and takes the reader away from the norms of a conventional thriller. 

Lo is often unlikeable and her point of view is unreliable at the best of times. Which drives this story to the great success that it is. If we can’t trust the protagonist, what else is hiding below the surface of the story? 

This one will keep you reading into the wee hours of the night.