The Woman in Cabin 10 Paperback – April 11, 2017

This book has been in my library for a while now, but I'm glad to have finally read it. I should've read it much sooner. What's scarier than a murder? A murder on the high seas. Laura, aka Lo, a journalist, is filling in for a coworker aboard cruise on its maiden voyage. However, things take a turn when she calls attention to a woman whom she believes has been murdered and thrown overboard. What was an attempt to help turns into Lo becoming a possible victim as well. What makes matters even worse is that she doesn't know who to trust as strange things start to take place.

Lo is a 32 year old Londoner who is kind of staggering her way through life. She's a writer for a travel magazine, not exactly a bad job, but she hasn't really progressed in her 10 years with the company. She is dating Judah, a transplanted New Yorker, they seem happy enough but she cannot seem to commit to him. The only thing she can really commit to is drinking. She tends to drink to over come shyness, anxiety and social awkwardness., all of which she apparently suffers from often.Lo lucks into a dream assignment, to take and then write about a super luxe cruise, in place of her boss. Unfortunately, the week before the cruise, she is burglarized in the middle of the night while she is home alone. Although she is completely traumatized, she still takes the assignment and goes through with the cruise. After all, what can go wrong on a small, luxury cruise ship catering to the uber wealthy...Initially, I found it hard to really like or route for Lo. She comes off as incompetent, slow, socially awkward and really not all that smart. Her boyfriend, Judah, seems to really love her, but I can't figure exactly what he sees in her. She seems to be pretty inept at her job. For example, she doesn't think to request the passenger list for the cruise and research her fellow passengers beforehand (like all the other journalists did). She always seems to trust the wrong person, say the wrong thing, be the most drunk person in the room, be the last person to catch on to anything that's not 100% spelled out for her and rub people wrong. Not to mention, she actually borrows a strangers mascara- that's just begging for pink eye. She basically needs to learn to do the exact opposite of what her instincts tell her to do.I kept wanting to tell her to wake up and think. There was only one time in the entire book where she actually figured out what was happening in a clever way and only one part where I thought she handled a person very well.Given my paragraph long tirade on why I didn't warm to Lo at first, it probably makes one wonder why I gave the book four stars. About 2/3 through the book, I felt like Lo started to grow up a little, grow a set and try to take some control of her situation. She still made some questionable choices, but was at least trying. I also saw that she's really a good person, she went to a lot of trouble to help another woman she barely knew, that says a lot about her character.The book was an excellent psychological thriller. It literally took me until the book finally explained what had happened until I figured out what exactly happened. I really had not figured out who was responsible up until the end, in fact I had no idea at all. Everyone looked pretty guilty to me.I loved Ruth Ward's last book. ' In a dark dark word's and could barely wait this one. Luckily, I preordered the book and it popped up on my kindle while I was on vacation just as I finished my previous book. It was a great book to read while travelling or any other time.

Your friend-- let’s call her Debbie Downer-- is a claustrophobic, alcoholic, neurotic insomniac. She’s also a total screwup at her job, and honestly, not very bright. Her house was just broken into so you’re trying to cut her a break, but her nonstop complaining— it’s too hot, it’s too cold, the ceilings are too low, the room’s too small, my clothes smell, I’m too sleepy, I’m too hungry, I’m not hungry, I’m hungover, etc.— is getting to you. Plus there’s the counting to herself (One, Two, Three…!) and the constant, random weeping. She’s a hot mess.Would you want to spend a lot of time hanging around her? Well, if you can stand to spend 352 pages with her, then you’ll love Lo Blacklock, the protagonist of this book.I won’t go into a plot synopsis, others have done that already. I managed to solve the “mystery” 66% into the book (I’m on a Kindle), so kudos to the author for making the plot two-thirds difficult. As a reader it’s no fun being more clever than the protagonist.The only mystery to me was how the author was going to fill the other 33% of the book.Some weird things in this book:-In an early chapter, which I can only guess is used as a plot device by the author to introduce the boyfriend, Lo has a nonsensical argument with him on par with:"You did it”“No you did it”“No you”“No you”“I love you”and breaks up with him. I sat there thinking “What the hell did I just read?”- At another point, during the cruise Lo locks herself in her cabin and spends a number of chapters trying to figure out how to get out. Ok, I made that up, but if it had happened, it wouldn’t have been out of place.- Throughout, there was an absolute lack of modern communication on the luxury cruise Lo was on. No phone, no internet, like it’s a pirate ship from 1633. I’m no expert on Wifi at sea, but come on. The Bushmen in the Kalahari have iPhones at this point. It felt like a ruse to support the plot.- And finally, the casual, illogical, loss of the evidence. It’s like Hercule Poirot saying, “Hey, I think I’ll leave the murder weapon right here, in this house full of suspects. Yeah, it’ll be here tomorrow when I come back for it. Not. worried. at. all.”I know I’m being really hard on the author, but that’s because the critics’ reviews heightened my expectations by making the book out to be on par with The Usual Suspects, in terms of plot twists. It’s not. And that’s not the author’s fault. The book is a straight up mildly entertaining mystery, and not badly written, but there’s not a lot here to hang your hat on.

This was a page turner. There was mystery, intrigue, and the suspense, especially towards the end kept me turning the pages. I just had to know how it ended (even though I had a pretty good guess).The only thing I found to be irritating was the portrayal of Lo as a hysterical girl that couldn’t possibly know what she saw. Though I don’t think it was unrealistic, it was a bit annoying that it continued for as long as it did and no other woman seemed to be even remotely concerned about what Lo said happened.Otherwise, I loved the story!