Distress Signals

Catherine Ryan Howard

Thriller, mystery

Blurb

Did she leave, or was she taken?

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…

First thoughts

From the very first line, I was drawn in. It was a breath-taking start, literally. I felt myself struggling to breathe as I read it.

Writing style

The book had the unconventional style of having no chapter numbers. Each section/ chapter was from a particular viewpoint character’s perspective and either from their past or present. There was never any confusion of where I was in the story, and this style made for a page-turning thriller.

Issues

It’s hard to find faults with this book. Some of the scenes were quite an uncomfortable read, I sort of knew where they were going but was dreading the outcome. That is in no way a criticism, but a compliment to the writer’s skill.

Final thoughts

I read this book in a matter of days, unable to think of anything else. There were shocks and twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. I loved how the breath-taking beginning formed part of the climactic scenes towards the end. This book has everything I want from a thriller, and more.

It is a definite candidate for that book hangover feeling. I haven’t managed to pick up another fiction book since finishing it.

Recommend to

I recommend to thriller lovers and those who love a mystery to unravel.

My rating

A very worthy 5 stars.

***

I’ve been wanting to read Distress Signals ever since Catherine agreed to do a guest post on my blog during the book’s release. Check out her post here on why she chose traditional publishing over self-publishing.

Distress Signals has been shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards! Vote for your favourite reads of 2016 here.

It’s currently only 98p on Amazon UK. Well worth reading.