377. The Woman in Cabin 10
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Recommended by:
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Thriller
357 pages, published April 16, 2019
Reading Format: Book
Summary
The Woman in Cabin 10 is a thriller that takes place in the constrained confines of a high end luxury yacht that has set sail on the North Sea. Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, is on board to cover the maiden voyage. At first, she enjoys the glamour and opulence. However, when the weather starts to turn, Lo is awakened in the middle of the night and views a woman being thrown overboard. When she rings the alarm bell, no one believes her since no passengers are missing. Things become more desperate for Lo as she begins to doubt her own sanity and struggles to figure out what happened.
Quotes
“My friend Erin says we all have demons inside us, voices that whisper we’re no good, that if we don’t make this promotion or ace that exam we’ll reveal to the world exactly what kind of worthless sacks of skin and sinew we really are Maybe that’s true. Maybe mine just have louder voices.”
“Maybe that was closer to the truth–we weren’t captor and captive, but two animals in different compartments of the same cage. Hers was just slightly larger.”
“I love ports. I love the smell of tar and sea air, and the scream of the gulls. Maybe it’s years of taking the ferry to France for summer holidays, but a harbor gives me a feeling of freedom in a way that an airport never does. Airports say work and security checks and delays. Ports say… I don’t know. Something completely different. Escape, maybe.”
“There’s a reason why we keep thoughts inside our heads for the most part—they’re not safe to be let out in public.”
“Of course the one type of sashimi you really must try is fugu,” Alexander said expansively, smoothing his napkin across his straining cummerbund. “It’s simply the most exquisite taste.” “Fugu?” I said, trying to insert myself into the conversation. “Isn’t that the horribly poisonous one?” “Absolutely, and that’s what makes the experience. I’ve never been a drug taker—I know my own weaknesses, and I am very aware of being one of life’s lotus-eaters, so I’ve never trusted myself to dabble in that sort of thing—but I can only assume that the high one experiences after eating fugu triggers a similar neuron response. The diner has diced with death, and won.”
“she had made her way up the corporate ladder by treading on the backs of more young women than you could count, and then, once she was through the glass ceiling, pulling the ladder up behind her. I remembered Rowan once saying, Tina is one of those women who thinks every bit of estrogen in the boardroom is a threat to her own existence.”
My Take
I gave The Woman in Cabin 10 four stars because it has the quintessential quality of a good thriller: I couldn’t put it down. In a similar fashion to Something in the Water (a page turner that I also really enjoyed) Ware does a great job of keeping the tension high, the red herrings plentiful and the twists coming at just the right moment. Highly recommended vacation read.
