Author: Ruth Ware
Year published: 2025
Category: Adult fiction (thriller)
Pages: 400 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): Switzerland, UK, USA (NY)
Summary: In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.
When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?
Review: I've read a number of Ruth Ware novels: One Perfect Couple (probably my favorite); The It Girl; The Death of Mrs. Westaway; and The Turn of the Key; (links to my reviews). Notice I managed to skip The Woman in Cabin 10 (the book that comes before this one). For me, a book with a dark cover featuring a full churning bathtub immediately creates fear and tension. There's going to be a drowning, right? Or at least the threat of one. Yikes.
Lo (Laura) is a smart character though a bit trusting, but don't we all want to believe that people are being truthful? She just wants to get her career back on track, hang out with her husband and children, and not get pulled into (more) scary stuff. Of course, that's not how thrillers work so Lo is headed into a wild ride.
Ruth Ware is good at creating tension and uncertainty. I was never completely sure who was going to die (or would someone die?), who was lying or telling the truth, and who the main character should trust. Throw in borowed/lent passports, a history of past bad deeds (in The Woman in Cabin 10), and this thriller kept me on the edge of my seat and turning pages.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Bookish--the main character is a writer/journalist
- Cover Love--A lighted window
- Literary Escapes--Switzerland
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