Synopsis

The dark side of paradise is exposed when a terrified couple reveals their daunting experience on a remote island to their rescuers—only to realize they’re still in the grips of the island’s secrets—in this intense and startling debut in the tradition of Into the Jungle and The Ruins.

When a Navy vessel comes across a yacht in distress in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, Captain Danial Tengku orders his ship to rush to its aid. On board the yacht is a British couple: a horribly injured man, Jake, and his traumatized wife, Virginie, who breathlessly confesses, “It’s all my fault. I killed them.”

Trembling with fear, she reveals their shocking story to Danial. Months earlier, the couple had spent all their savings on a yacht, full of excitement for exploring the high seas and exotic lands together. They start at the busy harbors of Malaysia and, through word of mouth, Jake and Virginie learn about a tiny, isolated island full of unspoiled beaches. When they arrive, they discover they are not the only visitors and quickly become entangled with a motley crew of ex-pat sailors. Soon, Jake and Virginie’s adventurous dream turns into a terrifying nightmare.

Now, it’s up to Danial to determine just how much truth there is in Virginie’s alarming tale. But when his crew makes a shocking discovery, he realizes that if he doesn’t act soon, they could all fall under the dark spell of the island.

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Review

This was a different type of suspense novel for me, but it wasn’t extremely suspenseful except for some at the beginning and the end. A boat is discovered by a Naval unit and there is a lot of wondering about how these two ended up on the boat and how he was hurt. Lots of unanswered questions. The bulk of the book follows Jake and Virginie and their adventures with becoming world travelers on a boat and roaming from port to port, at least that is their plan until they meet Terry and learn about Amarante. This tiny island is in the middle of nowhere and anyone that visits has to stock up on supplies, and if you need help there isn’t much around. Virginie persuades Jake that they travel there first and change their plans. What could possibly go wrong?

This book kept me engaged and I wondered about several of the characters and their motives in various situations. I have to be vague to keep you in suspense and not give away too much of the storyline. The fellow travelers that they meet at Amarante seem harmless, but are they? The story comes to a climax as it nears the time they need to leave because the monsoon season is about to start and we then fall back to the snippet at the beginning and the navy vessel finding them drifting miles away from anywhere.

The ending really picks up with the truth coming out about various characters and their motives. I have to admit that I was confused once we were back in the present in the book and the book switched POV. The author probably should have put Tengku’s name at the top of the chapter so we know that it switches to his POV. He turns out to have a pivotal role in the ending. The characters didn’t have a lot of depth to them but you get a sense of who they are and how that plays into their character. There are some obvious good and bad characters but the interaction between them all was intriguing.

Overall, we give this 4 paws up.

About the Author

Emma Bamford is an East Midlands-based author and journalist who has worked at The Independent and Daily Express and most recently as News Editor of the I newspaper.

She had a fairly normal life, to begin with, growing up with her younger brother and sister under the watchful eyes of her parents in Lincoln and Nottingham. After studying English Literature at Southampton University and Newspaper Journalism at UCLan, she started work as a cub reporter for the Bicester Review and then the Derby Evening Telegraph, cutting her journalistic teeth interviewing organizers of local fetes and grilling parish council members. Fleet Street beckoned and highlights of her career as a reporter and news editor include asking F1 driver Jenson Button what his favorite toasted sandwich filling was, quizzing the incumbent Home Secretary on his preferred kind of cheese (spot a pattern?), and peeing in Bruce Forsyth’s downstairs loo. There was some serious and hard-hitting journalism in there for a fair few years, too.

Then, in her early 30s and bored with this ‘fairly normal life’ she’d created for herself, Emma took a career break and, despite protestations from friends and family, answered an advert on the internet for ‘crew wanted’ and flew to Borneo to live on a boat with a man she had never met and his cat. She found herself hunting for elephants in the jungle, visiting deserted islands, and running from pirates. Finally, she ended up among billionaires, working as a stewardess on a superyacht in Italy. Her adventures form the basis of her first book, Casting Off.

Emma now works part-time as a freelance to give herself space to write and make the jump from memoirs to novels. Her ambition is to make book writing her full-time career. Tropical settings feature high in her inspiration and as her books’ settings, although she lives about as far away from the sea as it is possible, in landlocked rural Derbyshire. And, while she may make self-deprecating jokes constantly, she really is serious about figuring out what is important in life and finding the freedom to be who you want to be.

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