Bad Tourists by Caro Carver #BadTourists @carverofbooks @TransworldBooks #BookReview

 

Best friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate have just landed in to the Maldives for a luxury holiday at the exclusive Sapphire Island Resort.

They can't wait for ten days of scorching sun, crystal-clear waters, white-sand beaches - and the chance to put a traumatic shared past behind them.

But what awaits them is a murderous revenge plot that none of them saw coming.

Or did they?

Bad Tourists by Caro Carver was published on 4 July 2024 by Bantam. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

This is a fabulous read. A destination thriller, combined with the friend to killer trope and excellently written. I could hardly put it down! 

The enticing and quite shocking prologue finds us in a dark, gloomy boarding house. One girl arrived fairly late, she was freaked out a bit by the guy on reception, but tired and wanted to sleep. By the next morning, every single guest had been murdered ... but the killer spared her. 

Fast forward to the present day and three women; Darcy, Camilla and Kate are arriving at a luxury resort in the Maldives. This is six star luxury, all paid for by Darcy, to celebrate her divorce from her incredibly wealthy IT tech company owner husband. 

One immediately thinks that these three women are old friends, but as the story progresses, we learn that they only met and became close quite recently. The one thing that they have in common is that boarding house massacre from the prologue. Kate is the girl that survived, Camilla's twin brother was a victim and Darcy's very first love was also killed. Meeting online, they've struck up an unlikely friendship. Kate especially struggles. Her life was turned upside down by the events, she gave up her dreams and currently lives a solitary lifestyle, ghost writing books as a living. 

Their holiday resort is incredible.  There is everything that they could ever want, they are waited on hand and foot, yet there's an underlying tension running through the narrative that increases page by page. The women meet Jade, a young woman who is on honeymoon with her older husband. It's clear that Jade is covering up a lot, the bruising on her face says more than words could, her jumpy behaviour around her husband. The way that he reacts when she speaks with another man. All of this just adds to the feeling of dread that makes the reader realise that nothing is quite what it seems. 

And .... then there's a death. A fellow guest, one who they've all had contact with is found dead. Clearly it is murder and the resort is now buzzing with suspicion and fear. Meanwhile the three women have their own ideas about what may have happened, and also how it could be connected to the boarding house killings,  and dream up an extraordinary plan to seek justice.

It's a complex, cleverly woven story of deception and long held secrets. The author has created characters who are often quite awful, and it can be difficult to trust any of them. The interwoven historical story of the killings twenty two years ago adds a menacing feel to the sunshine and luxury of the present day tale. 

With a totally unexpected and completely thrilling and very clever reveal, I had no inkling at all of what was to come. Chilling, full of suspense and utterly entertaining. Recommended by me. 

Caro Carver lives in Scotland with her husband and four children. 

She is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, teaches for the Faber Academy and the Curtis Brown Academy, and regularly speaks on panels and hosts events on writing. 

Caro is happiest when travelling and takes inspiration from her travels to write her books. 

Bad Tourists, her first book written under the pseudonym of Caro Carver, was published by Transworld in Summer 2024. 

She is also published by HarperCollins as C.J. Cooke for her gothic thrillers.

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