Escape to paradise.
Scuba diving instructor Cass leads her students out for their first dive off the beautiful coast of Koh Sang, Thailand's world-famous party island. It's supposed to be a life-changing experience, but things quickly spiral out of control...
Leave your secrets behind.
By the time she gets back to the shore, one of her students is dead, another badly injured, and she knows that her idyllic life is about to be smashed to pieces on the rocks.
But don't get lost for ever...
Because someone is making sure that backpackers never leave paradise - one murder at a time. And Cass has a feeling she might be next...
The Dive by Sara Ochs was published on 20 July 2023 by Bantam. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours blog tour.
Marketed as 'the debut thriller of 2023' by the publishers, and with a fabulous cover design, I was really looking forward to settling down to read The Dive.
It's the sort of book that you can really lose yourself in. One moment you are sitting in dreary England, with grey skies and constant drizzle, and the next you are transported to the white beaches and carefree lifestyle of Thailand. It is pure escapism, and also has a fast paced, tension thrilled plot filled with characters who are totally unreliable but who are also fascinating and so well created.
Sara Ochs has clearly drawn on her experiences of travelling the world when reading this book. I have never been on a dive, I hate getting my face wet for one, and the thought of being underwater, feeling a little vulnerable just scares me witless.
The main protagonist of this novel, Cass, feels very differently. After fleeing her UK home and visiting Koh Sang, she takes a few diving lessons and finds that she loves it. After further training, she lands a job as an instructor and life is good. She's a member of a party loving ex-pat community and has found her soul mate in Logan. They've just got engaged and Cass thinks that she has shed her past.
However, things change on the day that she takes out a group of students and one of them doesn't get back to the beach. Her body is found entwined in debris in the ocean and this is just the beginning of Cass's nightmare. Becoming paranoid, and certain that someone is following her, she finds messages that could only be meant for her. Messages that mean that she may have to admit to her past.
This is full of twists and turns in every chapter. Nothing is quite what it seems and there are characters that are not to be trusted. The reader is told the story through two voices; Cass and Brooke - a social media influencer whose online persona bears little resemblance to real life.
A sinister and thought provoking story with a beautiful setting, brimming with suspense and mystery. From paradise to despair, from the perfect dream to the ultimate nightmare. Recommended by me.
sometimes dangerous destinations.
While learning to scuba dive on a remote island off the coast of Thailand, Sara heard that two backpackers had recently been murdered not far from her hotel. Horrified that something so terrible could happen in such an idyllic location, she knew she had found the inspiration for her debut novel, The Dive.
As well as being an author, Sara is an attorney and law professor, who splits her time between the United States and Sweden.
You can find Sara on Instagram @saraochsauthor and on Twitter @OchsWrites.
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