The castaways

This perceptive psychological thriller from bestseller Clarke (The Surf House) explores the aftermath of a brutal fight between British sisters Erin and Lori the night before they plan to leave for a holiday in Fiji. Hurt and angry after the sisterly row, Erin declines to join Lori on the plane at the last minute, only to be plunged into a pit of survivor's guilt when the aircraft disappears mid-flight. All the passengers, including Lori, are declared dead, but two years later, the plane's pilot emerges from hiding, igniting Erin's hope that her sister might still be alive. The pilot claims he's the sole survivor, but a determined Erin heads off to Fiji to search for Lori anyway. Clarke braids together Erin's present-day search with the harrowing details of what actually happened to Lori two years earlier; unfortunately, this dual structure diminishes the story's suspense, with new developments in each plotline spoiling major moments in the other one. Still, readers more interested in Clarke's sharp take on dysfunctional sibling dynamics than the element of surprise will find enough to enjoy. Agent: Grainne Fox, UTA. (Jan.)

A plane crash comes to define the lives and memories of two sisters. Two years after her sister Lori's plane crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and was never found, Erin learns that the pilot is still alive. She travels to Fiji to see if she can learn more about what happened to the ill-fated flight, sure there must have been other survivors--and riddled with guilt because she was also supposed to be on the plane, but she and Lori had a blow-out fight the night before the flight and she never showed up at the airport. It was supposed to be a sister's bonding trip, paid for with the joint checking account Lori still shared with her cheating ex. But instead, it becomes the defining tragedy in Erin's life because even after the deaths of their parents they had each other, while "losing Lori was like…like someone had just reached up and plucked the sun right out of the sky." The novel unspools like a split screen, with chapters alternating between Erin's first-person narrative in the present as she interrogates the pilot about what he knows, and Lori's third-person perspective from the day of the plane crash forward. In this way Clarke builds the suspense, the narrative, and the emotional resonance brick by brick, creating a slow burn until the past and present finally collide. She also creates two very human, emotionally empathetic women to anchor her thriller. There are some twists, most notably a smart ending, that provide even more complexity in the lives of the two sisters. Clarke explores the power of familial ties--between siblings, between mothers and children, between fathers and sons--against the backdrop of aLost-worthy plane-crash-on-a-desert-island scenario. Resonates with the real-world impact of grief and trauma. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.