Ruth Ware - The Woman in Cabin 10

This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship.
A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse.
Except things don't go as planned.
Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat.
Exhausted and emotional, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a mistake—either that, or she is now trapped on a boat with a murderer...

Comment: I had this book to read since 2016, only purchased it in 2020 and now I've finally dived in (ah ah ah) into this mystery set on a luxurious ship. It is also the first book I try by the author.

Laura Blacklock is a journalist who works for a travel magazine and due to a specific conjunction of events, she is the one who will be covering the launch of a boutique cruise, meant to be a luxurious experience for only a few lucky ones at a time. Lo, as she is known, isn't on her best days, especially because very recently before she is meant to leave for the cruise, she wakes up one night in her home to find a man inside, and he locks her in her bedroom while escaping. This was rather traumatic to the already stressed Lo, and going away in a ship, even if it's a exclusive one, isn't enough to make her feel safe. Things become even worse when she wakes up with a scream and from her cabin's window she realizes a body was thrown, but when she raises the alarm, no one is missing and no one knows who the woman she saw in the cabin next to hers was either. Lo is worried and she starts feeling others might be doing something to make her feel crazy, but why and for what purpose...?

This story combines two interesting elements we often see in mystery novels: a heroine who is unreliable or meant to seem so, and a closed space (well, boat) from which the characters cannot leave on their own. I'm not the most dedicated thriller/mystery reader but I like a good one just like other readers, and sometimes a certain book appeals in such a way... well, I will say I liked the author's style and the way things are supposed to be suggestive, but I wasn't too fond of one thing in particular.

So, in order for some situations to feel more stressful, more tense, we are led to think of Lo as someone who battled depression and was/is on antidepressants which means her version of events might not be the correct one. At least, we are meant to consider this possibility, and to reinforce this, the author used the house burglary to make us think the trauma of such a thing also affected Lo's ability to discern what was happening or if she was simply exaggerating. I won't spoiler anything but let if be said everything might be better if Lo has been a bit more... professional.

To me, the biggest flaw in my ability to follow the plot with more interest was the fact Lo goes on board, is supposedly doing her job, is a professional for all I know, and she acts so... unfocused on what she is meant to be doing. Yes, she went through something terrible, and of course this notion would affect anyone, but that aside, even considering her behavior in the cruise (which is a different matter) , a heavy part of the mystery sets on Lo's testimony and in what she does after she thinks she saw someone being thrown overboard. But what about her planning to do her job, what about scenes of her doing any kind of journalism? There are some references to one or two details but I don't think that was enough to give me a sense of who she is, professionally. Why not having her be a crew member....?

Perhaps I'm just being picky. Apart from this, the reading experience was engaging... of course all the other characters were hard to get, not only because it's Lo the only narrator, but also because we are meant to be suspicious of practically everyone. I will say that once one or two comments were done regarding one particular characters' skills, I've started to create this scenario in my head and while what I thought wasn't the explanation, the real one wasn't to far off. In that sense, the "twist" wasn't as greatly presented as, perhaps, it would in a movie, but it did have its fascination.

The reason for the mystery and what happens is, as often happens to be, a little predictable and disappointingly mundane, but made for an interesting read. I wasn't too fond of Lo's lack of professionalism, but her research into what was happening isn't all that bad since she isn't a detective and when we don't have much on the characters besides the basics and information gotten from dialogue. As I've said, I'm not a reader of mainly thrillers and I can imagine others out there might be better (and worse) but of the limited experience I have, this isn't the most amazing one. Or, perhaps the execution wasn't the most thrilling one.

I did like the setting and I wouldn't mind to have the chance to experience a lux cruise for free but from what I understood, the cruise was small when comparing with similar plots, and there were a few details I struggled to picture when the description mentions certain sizes.

I also think the distractions - or what I've perceived as red herrings - weren't well accomplished. Certain clues were used/hinted at and went nowhere, so why bother including them, certainly there could be better ways to "deceive" the reader into a false sense of knowledge.

Anyway, this was good enough to sustain my interest and it helped it wasn't a big book. Everything was quite compact and linear. The very end seems to imply a few situations when Lo is about to uncover the truth might not have happened exactly the way it seemed, but I didn't feel bothered by the implications. The story was strong enough in its making, but there were details I wasn't a fan of. I will read another book by the author at some point, to at least compare my reaction.

Grade: 7/10