Written by Paula Hawkins (of The Girl on the Train fame), Into the Water follows the supposed suicide of Nel Abbot, a woman no one in town appears to have liked, as her long estranged sister comes back to town to care for her nice, Lena who dealt first with the death of her best friend and now of her mother.
Before we get into the meat of the review, let me go over the Audio Book part of it. This version had 4 narrators and this book has many points of view that it tells the story through. The thing I didn’t like about this method is the same thing I didn’t like about Serpent King: they don’t let the narrators of one perspective always do that person’s spoken voice. So you end up with three people giving the same person a slightly different accent and it makes it a bit hard to recognize characters/distinguish them based on voice alone. That, and I couldn’t tell if they were doing an English accent or if they were supposed to be doing a Scottish accent.
This novel is full of so many twists and turns and just… so much lying. It was an interesting listen, and perfect to listen to while driving. I think that, in many ways, a lot of the characters were too forgiving to Nel. But that is just a personal opinion.
Kate’s death was pivotal to the story, however it was such a distraction and, at least with the actor who read her voice, I found Lena terribly annoying. And I feel terrible for thinking that as the character had lost two big, important people in her life. But there, I said it.
This is a good mystery book. I don’t think I would call it a thriller, though some might consider points in it to be a thriller, the overall feel was more of a contemporary novel with mystery woven throughout.
I enjoy it. Wouldn’t recommend listening to it in a car with coworkers, but it was good. If you enjoy murder, mystery, and drama, this is a very good book. There is some action in it, for those who like that, as well. Romance is present in this novel, but not in the way that a romance fan would enjoy.
