Review by Booklist Review
The glamorous superyacht Ophelia sets sail across the Atlantic for its final trip of the season, as directed by two absurdly wealthy businessmen, with a crew sworn to confidentiality and ready to adhere to their every whim. The crew's newest member, Sasha, took the last-minute opening for a stewardess to flee her previous job as a nurse but soon realizes this is no paradise vacation. Seemingly petty drama among the five stunningly gorgeous and weirdly identical other stewardesses and fellow crew members quickly escalates when Sasha discovers a body in the water. Shifting points of view for each chapter create a fast pace as readers discover more salacious gossip and even more possible motives for murder--and become totally incapable of not reading the next chapter. Characters are quick to jump to conclusions, but the truth takes many twists and turns before it slowly comes to light. Gilbert intertwines multiple backstories, all converging in one sensational storyline. The murder-mystery mashup of Hercule Poirot-meets-Below Deck plus superyacht vacation vibes and a writing style similar to Lucy Foley's make this a perfectly juicy summer read.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A superyacht becomes a crime scene in this diverting thriller from Gilbert (She Started It). Former nurse Sasha has taken a new job on Ophelia, a massive ship chartered for a journey from Gibraltar to New York City by wealthy friends Benjamin Edmonson and Digby Johnson. After the crew is assembled, Sasha--who's withholding the reason she changed careers--notices that the yacht's four other stewardesses look almost exactly like her: "Put us in a lineup and turn us around, and I'm not sure our own mothers could tell us apart." Then Sasha learns that one of her predecessors vanished a year prior, and that the girl's best friend suspected foul play. Gilbert alternates perspectives among Sasha; her supervisor, Jade; and her lookalikes, gradually sowing doubt about the purpose of the journey. Meanwhile, an eerie prologue featuring a female corpse floating in the water hangs over the action, suggesting that someone on the ship is a killer. Gilbert has the mechanics of the locked-room mystery down, and orchestrates the story's familiar parts into a satisfying symphony of tension. It's tough to put down. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency. (June)
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