Bad tourists

Carver (A Haunting in the Arctic, as C.J. Cooke) delivers an engrossing if uneven destination thriller about three friends whose vacation goes sideways when a past tragedy rears its head. Darcy Levitt has splurged on a nine-day holiday with her best friends, Pilates instructor Camilla and ghostwriter Kate, at the luxurious Sapphire Island Resort in the Maldives. Ostensibly there to celebrate Darcy's divorce from her tech mogul husband, Jacob, the 40-somethings also share a connection to a grisly murder spree that took place in Dover, England, 22 years earlier. When one of the resort's guests turns up dead, the friends fear that history may be repeating itself. Flashbacks reveal how each woman was involved in the Dover massacre, and as the trio's vacation turns into a sprint for survival, Carver cannily drops in clues as to their true natures, occasionally dipping into the viewpoints of Darcy's husband and a honeymooning fellow guest for additional context. It all works like magic until the book's final quarter, when Carver rushes to tie up too many loose ends. Still, readers will have fun predicting how the pieces of this puzzle fit together. Agent: Ariele Fredman, UTA. (July)

Three British women whose friendship was forged from trauma take a luxury holiday to celebrate a divorce--but someone has a different agenda. After defining herself for years as the perfect wife and mother, Darcy is still reeling from her recent divorce. She decides to use part of the settlement to book a luxury vacation in the Maldives for herself and her two best friends, Kate and Camilla. Theirs is no ordinary friendship; they found each other just a few years ago, tied together by their different connections to a mass slaying 22 years earlier at an English guesthouse. The culprit turned himself in and died in prison, but as the anniversary approaches, it seems that all the women have reservations about whether justice was truly served. And despite the gorgeous ocean views and the bottomless cocktails, their vacation is not lacking in drama. They befriend a young woman on her honeymoon who can't quite conceal the bruises from her husband's fists and a suave dance instructor who goes missing after sharing a night of passion with Camilla. Is there a link between the long-ago massacre and the current acts of violence, or are the friends stuck in the trauma of their pasts? The setup to the story--the book's first and second acts--is exquisitely tension-filled. The novel moves among the perspectives of several characters, and their psychological layers--particularly that of the "survivor" who, in her own words, is "barely existing"--give the book a depth and complexity that belie the basic thriller structure. The third act, however, falls firmly into the realm of the sensational. True, there's a big twist, and it's surprising, but the superficiality of the solution and the extremity of the final action scene are disappointing after the thoughtful scaffolding. A satisfying summer thriller--but it could have been so much more. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.