The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

It's terrifying enough to witness a murder.

It's worse when no one believes you.

It was meant to be the perfect trip. A press launch on an intimate boutique cruise and a chance for travel journalist Lo Blackwood to recover from a traumatic break-in and her unravelling relationship.

Except things don't go as planned.

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

Is stress driving Lo to the brink?

Or is she trapped at sea with a murderer?

And will they strike again? 

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware is published by Harvill Secker on 30 June 2016 and is the author's second novel.

I read and reviewed Ruth Ware's debut In A Dark Dark Wood in July of last year. I enjoyed it very much and have been looking forward to this clever author's latest offering.

Once again, Ruth Ware has served up a huge dish of dark, disturbing, claustrophobic and chilling writing, she's created a story that made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and I began to jump at the sight of my own shadow.

Lo Blackwood; travel journalist, although not that successful, she's been given the opportunity to report on the maiden voyage of a luxury cruise ship. She's determined that this will be her breakthrough moment, the article that gets her noticed. Lo's not the luckiest of women; her relationship with with boyfriend Judah seems to be unravelling quickly, she's also pretty shaken up after disturbing an intruder in her flat. She's not slept properly for ages ... she's a bit of a wreck.

Things don't really improve when Lo boards the Aurora Borealis, despite the super-luxury, Lo just can't settle properly, she's tired and not that impressed by her fellow guests.

Lo witnesses a murder. Or does she? She's convinced that a body has been thrown overboard, and she knows who it was. Nobody else on board remembers seeing the woman in cabin 10, and Lo begins to sound like she's delusional. She knows what she heard, she knows who she met, she even borrowed a mascara from the woman .... the mascara is missing.

Ruth Ware has created a stifling environment, despite the luxury and glamour, there is a seediness about the Aurora Borealis and it's passengers that will chill the reader to the bone. There are characters galore, and each one could be a suspect ... that's if there really was a murder. Lo is not the most reliable of narrators, and the author throws in snippets of background detail about her throughout the story, enough to make the reader question Lo's story.

Drama, suspense and a definite creepiness; The Woman in Cabin 10 is a top quality mystery story penned by a very clever author.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.

Ruth Ware grew up in Lewes, in Sussex. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer. She now lives in North London with her family.

Her debut thriller, In A Dark Dark Wood, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and has been optioned for film by New Line Cinema.

Find out more about Ruth Ware at www.ruthware.com
Find her Author page on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter @RuthWareWriter

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