All aboard for some thrills

Ruth Ware's The Woman In Cabin 10 is a decent thriller, not super propulsive but not slow, either. A travel writer covering the maiden voyage of a luxurious "boutique" cruise ship believes she witnesses an assault and murder aboard the vessel, but when she looks closer into the matter, there is no evidence to back up her claim.  The bulk of the book is writer Laura ("Lo" to her friends and colleagues) running around the ship, while it's at sea, trying to piece together what happened. And, yes, there are eventually dangerous consequences to her snooping, I don't think it's too much to reveal.

I enjoyed the book, but was intrigued to see that many readers, via Amazon customer reviews, complained that they just couldn't enjoy the book because the main character was too miserable and depressed all the time, and not enjoying her glamorous job at all. It's true that Lo is a bit down at the start of the cruise, due to a scary encounter with a burglar who invaded her London flat while she was home. She also had a history of depression before that. But all that didn't bother me.  The mystery is good and the supporting characters are interesting, and that's all I really needed. Lo being a bit down throughout the story wasn't a big black mark for me. Sure, a bubbly, happy travel writer caught in a dangerous situation would be good, too, but that wasn't the story here. And I also found Lo battling both inner demons and outer dangers kind of interesting. But that's just me, I guess.

I moved efficiently through the trade paperback version of the novel, though I understand that the unabridged audio version, ready by Imogen Church, is pretty effective, too. But whatever version you select, this dark thriller, which takes some creative inspiration from two Hitchcock film classics, Rear Window and Vertigo (I'll say no more), will deliver some immersive escapism whenever you need it most.

The Woman In Cabin 10, which originally appeared in 2016, is available in print, Kindle, and audio versions.