PINTEREST
BLOGLOVIN
GOODREADS
A man on the edge.
A woman hell-bent on revenge.
A cheating husband.
A desperate wife.
A property empire on the brink of collapse.
A family at loggerheads.
A predator hiding in plain sight.
Who will sink and who will swim?
All is not as it seems aboard a billionaire’s superyacht in this addictive, twist-filled thriller
Publisher: No Exit Press
Format: Ebook, Audiobook, Paperback (21 May 2026)
MY THOUGHTS
When given the opportunity to review this for the blog tour, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been binge watching my way through all the many series of the luxury charter yacht TV programme, ‘Below Deck’ for months and this destination thriller ticked all the boxes. (Very much like this book, the TV series features wealthy guests with too much money but with no class or manners)
The story is told from multiple perspectives – the Deckie, the Trophy Wife, the Detective – amongst others. An extremely wealthy family, headed by property billionaire Evan Thyssen, is taking delivery of his latest status symbol, a new luxury yacht for a few weeks of sailing around the Mediterranean. This really is a dysfunctional family with corruption and toxicity aplenty. Everything is for appearances, however below the surface there are affairs, secrets and financial problems with the chief clearly spending above his means.
It sounds idyllic, sailing around the ports and coves of the Med, however there is one person on board with revenge on their mind. It’s easy to figure out the who, but the why isn’t fully revealed until later. It’s no lie to say I was gripped from the first page. The short chapters made it so very readable and that undercurrent of foreboding was always there. We know from the prologue that there is one survivor, but who is this unnamed person? At the end of some chapters, social media comments are included which added interest.
It’s fair to say that with the exception of one or two crew members, most of the characters are instantly unlikeable, indeed, some are so awful that I really didn’t care whether they survived or not. This isn’t just a story of entitled wealthy people, there is also a darker and more harrowing strand to the story which is where the investigating Detective fits in.
I thoroughly enjoyed this well plotted and pacy thriller. I have one or two of Kayte’s other books on my shelf to read, including her previous thriller, The Palazzo, which I shall definitely have to bump up the book mountain.
I’ve been trying to keep this review as vague as possible to avoid spoilers. It really is a story you have to discover for yourselves. Definitely recommended and if you are a Kindle reader, it is currently just 99p to download from Amazon UK. An absolute steal for a super captivating and suspenseful read.
My thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for the tour invite and to the publisher for the paperback copy to review.
Kayte Nunn is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels including The Botanist’s Daughter, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, The Silk House, The Last Reunion and The Only Child. They are available worldwide in English, and have been translated into eleven languages.
The Botanist’s Daughter won the 2020 Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize and was selected as the National English Honour Society Common Reader for 2023/4.
Her books have been described as ‘deliciously immersive’ (The Daily Telegraph), offering ‘compelling storytelling’ (Australian Women’s Weekly), and ‘sensitive, atmospheric and often heartbreaking’ (Who Weekly).
She was brought up in England, lived in the US for a number of years as a child and now calls the Northern Rivers of NSW, Australia home.
Author Website | Insta | Facebook | Amazon UK
