After the Storm, by Jane Lythell

What better place than the confines of a yacht for the setting of a thriller?

What better place than the cramped, claustrophobic confines of a yacht for the setting of a thriller? Lythell has done it again, with a meticulously-planned and plotted slow-burner of a book.

Rob and Anna meet Owen and Kim on the coast of Belize; they hire them and their old sailing boat to set off for an island in the Caribbean for some sun, sea and adventure.

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Oh dear. You just know they would have been better off in Tuscany. The geographical setting of this great book is ridden with illusion - and the front that the sleazy portside towns keep up for tourists is sinister in the extreme.

Charged with tension and doubts and questions: Why doesn't Owen sleep? Why does Kim keep a knife zipped into her money belt? (Of course, I answered those questions early on, only to be proved wrong and wrong again.)

With four people on board a yacht in the sunny Caribbean, it should be a holiday of a lifetime, with rum cocktails and fresh fish for supper. But early on, the sense of dread and disaster haunt every page, till you are practically shrieking at them all to get off the boat, get to an airport, and fly home to safety.

But then, of course, we'd all be deprived of a great read.

Jane Lythell will be appearing at Bookish Supper Society on Wednesday, March 25. Tickets from Tabl.com

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