The Castaways

By Lucy Clarke

Published by Harper Collins

What it’s about?

A secret beach.
A holiday of a lifetime. 
Wish you were here?

Think again …

You wake on a beautiful, remote island.

Sparkling blue seas, golden sunsets, barely a footprint in the sand.

Yet this is no ordinary escape.

Next to the wreck of a plane, a stranger paces. Another sharpens a knife, scoring a list of the dead onto a palm tree. Others watch from the shadows of a campfire – all with untold stories, and closely-guarded secrets…

This is no ordinary holiday. 
This is no ordinary island. 
This is no ordinary beach read.

Gripping, twisty and full of sun-soaked atmosphere, The Castaways will whisk you far away to the island – and never let you go.

What I think:

This is a really interesting thriller. The characters are fantastic and you will be rooting for them from page 1.

Lori and Erin are sisters. They only have each other after the deaths of both of their parents. Lori is nursing a broken heart after the end of her marriage and blows the balance of the joint account on a girls’ trip to Fiji. Having reached the main island, Lori and Erin are set to head off on some island hopping but a few cocktails and some heated words words and Lori finds herself alone at the airport. When Erin doesn’t show up, she makes the fateful decision to go ahead without her.

The book begins two years after this flight. Erin has spent the last two years obsessing over the fate of the passengers on a flight that seemingly disappeared, including her sister, Lori.

When the pilot is discovered alive, but dying, Erin heads back to Fiji to investigate. Desperate to interview the pilot and try and get to the truth about what happened that day. She also knows more than she has let on. And the secrets are about to be revealed.

The dual narrative structure of the book allows the reader to see both the past and present, and the different perspectives of Erin and Lori.

As Erin is battling to find the truth, Lori is battling for survival.

This is such an atmospheric read. Life on the island and the challenges that the stranded passengers face is vividly recreated. The relationship are both fraught with tension and poignancy.

This is great read – the kind of book that keeps you reading longer after you should have turned out the light.

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for gifted copies of The Castaways.