Something in the Water
By Catherine Steadman
Ballantine Books, 9781524797676, April 2019, 384pp.
The Short of It:
When I picked this one up I was thinking it would be along the lines of Jaws or The Abyss. Not a spoiler but ocean life is not a big player here.
The Rest of It:
Erin makes documentaries for a living. Mark is an investment banker and not a very good one as he’s just been fired. Erin and Mark are engaged, in love and completely stressed out because if Mark doesn’t find a job soon, they’ll lose their home.
To add insult to injury, the big, beautiful wedding they had planned had to be cancelled due to cost. They opt for a smaller celebration and cut their glorious three weeks in Bora Bora to a mere two but they still manage to get themselves into trouble when a scuba diving trip goes wrong.
These two. What a pair! You learn very early on that Erin and Mark don’t seem to posses the highest morals. They are manipulative and don’t have a problem justifying their bad decisions. When that scuba diving trip uncovers the answer to their all their troubles, they don’t hesitate at all before diving head first into a pile of trouble.
As Erin and Mark continue to justify their actions, things begin to crumble around them and they find themselves trying to cover up their tracks. When they begin to question one another, then it gets particularly good.
Something in the Water was quite readable. The tension ran high throughout most of the book and I kept flipping those pages to see how the story would end. I didn’t love the characters and some of the story lines were too convenient and not realistic at all so in the end I didn’t love it but reading it was a solid way to spend the afternoon.
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
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Book Chatter 
This sounds like a book my mom would enjoy. She likes these kinds of suspense books.
It would make a good beach read only because it’s such a quick read. Yeah, there is some of a beach setting but it’s mostly set in London.
Sometimes I can roll with those convenient plot devices and other times I can’t. I do like a book with tension, though, so I’ll think about this one.
I hear ya. I can roll with easy plot lines too most of the time if they aren’t overdone. This book took some care not to be too over the top.
I can’t decide whether I want to read this one or not. I think I might get too aggravated with Erin and Mark.
You will be annoyed with these two. Perhaps, skip it. I guess it’s going to be made into a movie. I think a movie version would maybe be better.
This sounds like a vacation read to me. Easy and entertaining.
This sounds like such a fun beach read. Except, I started the book and had to put it down. Just not for me. I think all the hype made me think it would be really good and it turned out not to be. Or at least for me it wasn’t. I’m glad you enjoyed it so much 🙂 I think they are making a movie out of it.
It was enjoyable but it wasn’t what I expected it to be. The blurb made it sound like something really interesting was in the water and it was in fact rather pedestrian.
Perhaps I’ll save this one for the beach this summer. The two sound like pieces of work!
Definitely not your typical couple. Someone told me it’s being made into a movie.