The day Adam Dunne’s girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads ‘I’m sorry – S’ sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.
Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate – and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground…
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Preamble
I love Cork, who wouldn’t! I love it so much I even set one of my books there, but to read three books back on back all focused around this amazing part of Ireland is a little too much of a coincidence for my liking. I’ve a short review and then a long one.
The short review – I am NEVER going on a cruise after reading this book- end!!!
The long review
Firstly thanks must go to fellow book blogger Jo at mychestnutreadingtree for her great words. I try not to read reviews before reading the actual book but Distress Signals intrigued me. I’ve read any number of books set aboard ship but these have all been romances so…
So firstly this is a 5 ⭐️ thriller – that’s all you want to know, right?
But why? Because the end, while making complete sense is out of the blue and will make you think and think and think.
Distress Signals isn’t one of those fly by night reads that have only achieved the dizzy heights of fame through clever marketing plays and aggressive advertising. This book has received all its stars the hard way – by Ms Howard writing a very clever book, something which takes time, energy and gallons of coffee!
I’m not going to spoil the plot but Adam being the central character is an interesting study. His development from self centred to frantic is like watching a car crash in that it’s sudden as its devastating. This interspersed with vignettes from Corinne and Romain and an interesting start make this ‘unputdownable.’ I do like to guess the ending – shush – in truth I’m one of those annoying people who can’t let it rest until I know what’s going on. My best guess was a transvestite as a key character – my only plot leak to you – there’s no cross dressers to be found here.
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