The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd
Published by Random House on June 24, 2021
Narrator: Anna Wilson-Jones, Charles Armstrong
Length: 12 hrs
Genres: Thriller
Pages: 448
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
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HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?

The news doesn't strike cleanly, like a guillotine's blade. Nothing so merciful. This news is a slovenly traveller, dragging its feet, gradually revealing its horrors. And it announces itself first with violence - the urgent hammering of fists on the front door.

Life can change in a heartbeat.

Lucy has everything she could wish for: a beautiful home high on the clifftops, a devoted husband and two beloved children.

Then one morning, time stops. Their family yacht is recovered, abandoned far out at sea. Lucy's husband is nowhere to be found and as the seconds tick by, she begins to wonder - what if he was the one who took the boat? And if so, where is he now?

As a once-in-a-generation storm frustrates the rescue operation, Lucy pieces together what happened onboard. And then she makes a fresh discovery. One that plunges her into a living nightmare . . .

Wherever her husband is, he isn't alone. Because their children are missing, too.

I read The Memory Wood earlier this year and absolutely loved it. It had me gripped from start to finish so as soon as I saw another novel by Sam Lloyd there was no question as to whether I was going to read it.

The start of this novel was brilliant and for the first 3/4 I couldn’t read fast enough, I was devouring every page. Coming from a fishing town I loved the descriptions of the sea and how it was almost a character in itself. You could feel the swell of the waves and the danger that they brought.

The whole way through I was questioning the reality of what I was reading, knowing that things couldn’t be as they seemed. I was convinced I knew which character was going to be responsible for what had happened, it couldn’t possibly be what it appeared to be on the surface.

I was wrong.

Then we hit the 80% mark. I have a theory that 80% is where the bombshells hit, the twists happen, the pace of the story increases. And that’s where this story fell apart. There was a twist. I found it a complete let down. Things didn’t ramp up and I didn’t enjoy the end of the novel. I read this with my reading buddy and after “the big twist” she put it down in disgust. Over 80% through and it ended as a DNF for her. Now, it didn’t annoy me that much but I did think it let down what had been shaping up to be a 5 star book.