The Cruise: The gripping glamorous thriller from the author of the Sunday Times bestselling book - The Chalet

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Good points: The setting for this book is perfect. It's supposed to be a glamorous and idyllic cruise...but nope! It almost makes me want to go on one...almost (my fear of water and boats basically means I never will!) The story and plot and twists are amazing and I will never not buy a new Catherine Cooper book because they look so pretty all together on my book shelves! I also find it interesting that while cruising is of course one of the safest forms of travel, every year several people go missing from cruise ships, and quite often, no one really gets to the bottom of what happened. Overall it did feel like two different novels mushed together however it didn’t suit. There are ways to mash two story lines together however these two where very out of it.

I listened to the full-cast audiobook and all four narrators did an over-the-top job with the narration. I LOVED this fun, fast-paced murder mystery. Luxurious surroundings, great characters and dark secrets’ SUZY K QUINNThere’s always something to love about a book set on a ship. A cruise ship no less. You’d hope for a nice time but there are some very dodgy people on this one so take care. I mean , when the dancer Lola goes missing, it doesn’t look good does it? Also – whenever I’ve been on a ship, I find the size of the ocean quite scary if I think about it too much! It’s so massive and powerful. If you go in, it’s quite possible to be swallowed up and never seen again. A MASSIVE shout out for the audiobook, what a production, I particularly loved the narrator for Antonio - he was fab! The pacing was decent, the few twists were quite clever (if sometimes predictable), and the cruise-ship setting was convincing (as some of you may know, I love a good maritime setting - but equally, a bad one will really p*** me off). The stories in both timelines were engaging, and although the characters were superficial, I still wanted to know what would happen to them at each cliff-hanger, and would have read this in one sitting if I'd had that luxury. I had no idea where this story was going to lead me! No idea! What a journey it was! Jeez! Mind Blown! I love the twists and turns, and I did guess who one character was but not the one you think.

We get to know Alice who works on the cruise ship and runs the restaurant and a few other characters also have their own chapters. Much of the novel is set on a cruise ship on its way to the Caribbean. It’s a lovely way to travel in a book when you can’t go for real, or afford to go on a cruise. This is the life! Not if you’re a member of crew or a dancer though as they have some tough dealings to contend with. Their jobs would be happier if they didn’t have the passengers to deal with! This is hard to review in any depth for fear of spoiling something, but I’ll say I am not sure I really liked or connected with the characters. But I’ve found in a thriller that it doesn’t matter if you want to figure out who did it or what is going on and that was the case for me. Who killed Lola and what does this have to do with the secondary plot line. There was a lot of layers to this and it never felt like too much. To me it seemed absolutely enormous and I regularly lost my way trying to find my (rather lovely) stateroom, but since then obviously they have almost doubled in size! I didn't expect that ending, and I LOVED it!! Despite loving it, it feels wrong to love it! So bloody wrong, but right at the same time LOL

Several reasons – I was partly inspired by the cruise ships moored off the South coast of England during Covid and fascinated by the fact that they are obliged to have a skeleton crew onboard. I also found it disappointing when the ship was then put out of service, though admittedly with a skeleton crew. A cleverly plotted thriller set almost entirely in the French Alps. The descriptions of the snow made me feel like I was there’ ALLIE REYNOLDS During a New Year’s Eve party on a large, luxurious cruise ship in the Caribbean, the ship���s dancer, Lola, goes missing. This novel starts out one way and then I really found that it went in ways I had not expected. That’s a good thing! So many twists and turns and a killer ending if you excuse the pun. When the crew start driopping like flies and not just the dancer, wait until you start to investigate. Who exactly is on this ship and why? It’s not the kind of cruise I would hope for in real life, but in a novel it’s a huge amount of fun.

During a New Year’s Eve party on a large cruise ship in the Caribbean, the ship’s dancer, Lola, disappears. The ship is searched and the coastguard is called, but there is no sign of her, either dead or alive. I’m working on it at the moment and it’s set partly in an overwater resort in the Maldives and partly in the home counties. Again, lots of luxury, great food, and a few deaths!Again, wonderful and engaging writing, the author is clearly very well at what she does, but the book simply wasn’t for me. Although the book boasted eye-rolling moments, overall, it was an intriguing and entertaining read. By pleasing coincidence and neat symmetry, my first ARC of 2022 ( A Fatal Crossing) and this one, which will probably be my last, both happened to be thrillers set on cruise ships. Even aside from the setting, the two had a surprising amount in common - simplistic writing, far-fetched plot, and a ridiculous number of murders - but overall "The Cruise" was a much better book.