Title: The Castaways
Author: Lucy Clarke
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Synopsis:
A SECRET BEACH.
A HOLIDAY OF A LIFETIME.
WISH YOU WERE HERE?
THINK AGAIN…It should be like any other holiday.
Beautiful beaches.
Golden sunsets.
Nothing for miles.You’ll never want to leave.
Until you can’t…
My review:
The Castaways is one of those novels that very quickly sucks you in and doesn’t let you go until the very last page. I found it absolutely addictive reading.
The synopsis does not give much away, and I found that reading it without knowing much at all about the plot itself added to my intrigue, so I’ll aim to avoid spoiling the suspense by revealing too much here. The plot centers around sisters Lori and Erin, who have a bad argument the night before they’re due to take go on holiday to Fiji together. Erin misses the flight, which goes missing with Lori on it. Fast forward to a few years later, and Erin is newly invigorated to try and find out exactly what happened to the plane.
The story is told in two parts – ‘now’, following Erin in the present day, and ‘then’, following Lori as she embarks on the doomed plane journey. The plot is fairly slow to start with, but no less interesting, and picks up pace as we find out more and more about what happened. There’s plenty of tension in both storylines and I found I couldn’t put it down, I just wanted to know exactly what had happened to Lori!
The Castaways is a fun, enjoyable and, at times, moving read. There’s some satisfying twists which I really enjoyed and which felt believable too. I have already read a few other books by Lucy Clarke and really enjoyed them too, and the addition of The Castaways has cemented this author as a new favourite for escapist, fast paced thrillers.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Castaways is released in the UK in hardback and ebook formats on 18th March 2021. Pre-order now from Bookshop, Waterstones or Amazon UK.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest review.