Something In The Water

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Title: Something in the Water
Author: Catherine Steadman
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Publication: 2018

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional".

The title of the book was intriguing. It implied a mystery, a thriller or both. I stopped picking the book as per recommendations or reviews of others because many a times they failed me. Its my understanding to read book without any expectations. That makes it much more joyful process and I would be the sole judge without any influence.

Plot: Erin is an upcoming film maker who is engaged to Mark, a handsome and successful investment banker. She is filming a documentary about three prisoners from different walks of life who are to be affiliated back into society. Just few days before the D day Mark loses job. They decide to cut down on the wedding expenses and two weeks honeymoon in Bora Bora instead of planned three weeks. They were having a perfect honeymoon; sunbathing, hiking, scuba diving; eating exotic food; and generous dose of love making until they find something in the deep blue sea and their life is never the same.

Book opens where Erin is digging a grave to bury the body and she leaves it to the readers to decide whether she is a good person or not. That promised a good start. And in the end I could not fathom whether she is a good person or not. She made incredibly stupid choices for sure. She is greedy and completely untrustworthy. So, is Mark. The story is gripping from start to finish, though the climax is predictable with a little twist.

I started wondering is it so easy to smuggle things to England if you are traveling in first class as the writer suggests? What would I've done in Erin's position? I even prodded Hubby to answer what would be his choice if he was Mark after the storytelling. Throughout the book I was telling Erin not to walk that road and have her priorities right. In this way the book does justice to being a psychological thriller.  

This is author's first novel. Once I finished the book I decided to do a little research about the writer. Voila, I knew her. Not personally of course. She is an actress, and I recognized her roles from Downton Abbey and The Tudors. She weaved a relatively simple tale in an equally simple words. And I would like to read more from this one.