Two years ago, sisters Erin and Lori were meant to go to a remote island of Fiji together, but due to a bitter argument, Erin didn’t get on the plane. When the plane disappeared, with her sister on it, Erin’s life stopped and she was unable to accept that her sister was gone forever. Now, the pilot of the plane has been found alive, and Erin decides to go to Fiji to find out the truth… But there’s also a truth she’s been hiding this whole time, from everyone. A secret about the pilot…

Lucy Clarke is a best selling thriller writer, author of The Surf House. This book, The Castaways, and No Escape have been adapted for the screen by Paramount UK. Apparently, the TV series adaptation of this ends the story a little differently, meaning you can still enjoy the book if you’ve seen the series, and vice versa. This story follows the oft used format of this genre, with dual narratives. Chapters alternate, titled Now/Erin and Then/Lori. I don’t always love this kind of dual narrative, alternating chapters thing, but I’m curious about where its all going and I think it works fine here. Though Lori is third person and Erin is first, which feels a bit messy.

This book opens really well. We’re right into the action of the fight between the sisters and we get a quick primer on who they are and their relationship. They lost their mother when they were fairly young, meaning they really stick together and are closer than a lot of other siblings might be. A team. Which makes it all the more intriguing when we learn that they have a fight the night before their flight, and we don’t learn what the fight was about. The trip was booked on impulse after one of them broke up with their husband, and they’re both in Fiji, with just the short flight to the more remote location to go, when the fight happens. There’s also the little titbit that while waiting for the flight to board, we’re told the pilot looks shady and preoccupied… a nice little bit of foreshadowing…

The sisters fall into a fairly normal characterization, with Lori, the older sibling, being more staid and responsible, though she’s heartbroken by her marriage breaking up, and Erin being the more impulsive younger sibling, who drinks, works in journalism (and can somehow afford a two bedroom flat in London on that salary) and has a more edgy haircut. Out of all the characters, these two are the most well realised, though they’re not particularly dynamic. They didn’t feel particularly unique, or even that likeable at times, though I think for the thriller/mystery genre, that’s not a huge problem. The male characters, however, were very thinly written and didn’t feel realistic. They were very one note, black and white, and didn’t feel psychologically real and nuanced.

I enjoyed parts of this book. I think the premise and the idea was really good, and the twists were there, but the middle felt a little long and slow to me. I think when you’re writing a thriller like this, with a lead female who drinks too much and may be an unreliable narrator, who has a lot of guilt and a secret… the dual narratives… It’s territory that we know well and we don’t need a lot of explanation, you really need to keep this kind of narrative moving. I think the ending of this book was also a bit far fetched and didn’t completely match up with things we knew about the characters up to this point. Are these really the choices these characters would make, given their behaviour up til this point? As a thriller read, I didn’t hate it, it was fine, but it didn’t stand out from the pack for me as much as I would have liked.

Read It If: you have a complicated sibling relationship. A twisty, light, beachy read.

With thanks to PGC Books for the ARC of this book for review.