To the Sea

by Nikki Crutchley

Keep a secret. Tell a lie. Protect the family. At all costs.

A compulsively readable suspense thriller from Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted author, Nikki Crutchley, which will keep you guessing and reading up until late into the night.


Iluka has been the only home that 18-year-old Ana has ever known. The beautiful wild pine plantation overlooking the Pacific Ocean where her grandfather builds furniture, her aunt runs an artists' retreat and her uncle tends the land, is paradise, a private idyll safe from the outside world.

But the place holds a violent secret and when a stranger arrives, Ana will need to make a choice: to protect everything - and everyone - she holds dear or tell the truth and destroy it all.

An atmospheric, suspenseful, dark and twisty thriller in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Paula Hawkins, Anna Downes and JP Pomare.

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2021

About the author

After seven years of working as a librarian in New Zealand and overseas, Nikki now works as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. She lives in the small Waikato town of Cambridge in New Zealand with her husband and two girls.
Nikki has been writing on and off her whole life and before she turned to crime writing had success in flash fiction. She has been published in 'Bonsai: Best Small Fictions from Aotearoa New Zealand', and 'Fresh Ink' anthologies.
Crime/thriller/mystery novels are her passion. 'Nothing Bad Happens Here', her first novel, is set on the Coromandel Coast of New Zealand. It was a finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel.
Nikki's second book, 'No One Can Hear You', was long-listed for the Ngaio Marsh Award for best novel in 2019.
Nikki's third book, The Murder Club, the second in the Miller Hatcher series, is out September 2020.

Reviews

[Brooke - Brooke's Reading Life · Rating 4 out of 5]

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**4.5 stars**

To The Sea by Nikki Crutchley. (2021).

Iluka has been the only home that Ana has ever known. The beautiful wild pine plantation overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where her grandfather builds furniture, her aunt runs an artists' retreat and her uncle tends the land, is paradise, a private idyll safe from the outside world. But Iluka holds a violent secret and when a stranger arrives, Ana will need to make a choice: protect everything - and everyone - she holds dear or tell the truth and destroy it all.

I thought this novel was fantastic. I was utterly drawn in at the beginning and completely lost in the atmospheric world of Iluka until the very end. The narrative alternates between the viewpoints of Ana (current timeline) and Anahita (beginning 25 years ago). The other occupants of Iluka are the strong patriarch and leader Hurley (Ana's grandfather), Dylan (Ana's uncle), Marina (Dylan's partner) and Nikau (an overly curious artist who has come to Iluka for the retreat). The storyline is dark and readers will be both drawn and repelled by the isolated Iluka. While the current timeline is interesting, it's Anahita's chapters explaining the past that are engrossing and I found myself racing through the pages.
Overall: highly recommend this thriller for readers who wish to be captivated by suspense while reading.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this book by New Zealand author Nikki Crutchley. It’s not her first book and it shows in her accomplished dialogue and tension she sets.
Ana is 18 years old and Iluka is the only home she has ever known. She lives there with her mother, grandfather, uncle and aunt. Iluka is perched on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean, with its crumbling cliffs at the front and a forest of pine trees at the back the place is truly secluded and almost cut off from the next properties. The locals treat them with suspicion and the neighbours stay away. Ana and her family are pretty much self sufficient and that’s the way they like it, just them and the sea. When Nikau rents one of the cabins on the property for a photography retreat, he spends a good deal of his time trying to befriend Ana, and quizzing her on life at Iluka.
Told in two narratives, one through Ana’s mother some 24 years previous and Ana’s perspective now, we slowly see that this idyllic paradise holds dark, violent secrets and new comers and questions aren’t welcome.
This is a very atmospheric, dark story and would make an excellent movie. I highly recommend

#ToTheSea #NetGalley

[Theresa Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is without doubt one of the most sinister psychological thrillers I have read in an awfully long time. It’s one of those novels that mines a very dark terrain: control, coercion, intimidation, brainwashing, violence, and murder. This is one family whose secrets you do not want to dig into.

Hurley, the patriarch of this family, was a seriously deranged individual. However, it was his daughter, Anahita, who frightened me more. There was something missing in that child that allowed Hurley to take over her mind and nurture her into the destructive woman she became. This area of the story put me in mind of cults and how leaders can reshape the minds of their followers and influence them in ways that seems incredible to an outsider.

I do recommend this, particularly to those who like a very twisted and sinister psychological thriller. It’s unlike anything I’ve read before, and it would make a brilliant movie within the right hands.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one wasn't for me. I persisted for quite a long time after I realised I was probably going to walk away. I wanted to like it, it had great reviews and I was excited to read a new for me NZ author. Sadly it just didn't work out for me. I stopped caring and wanted to slap the characters.

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a dark and intense read! To The Sea by NZ author, Nickki Crutchley is disturbing but beautifully written and it had me enthralled. Highly recommend.

Iluka is the only home that 18 year old Ana has know. It is remote, cut off from the world and very, very secluded. Set on the cliff edge, the sea and the beach is a character all on it's own. Deeply atmospheric with some really tough themes, To The Sea will not be for every reader. Ana lives with her family in a bubble, hardly ever coming into contact with any other humans. Until one day, Ana meets a man who is asking questions, about her family and their past. Secrets are revealed and Ana will never be the same again.

Thanks to Harper Collins Australia for my copy of this book as part of their Summer reading package.
To The Sea is out now

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought 'WHO CARES"... Didn't connect with the people at all. Madness to to live like this About 100 pages in, I went to the last 3 chapters, and ended up thinking so glad I skipped so much. HORRIBLE people.

[Nicky Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just secrets and lies but the psychological nuances and impacts of the key characters is laid bare. Gripping from start to finish, constantly wanting to know what the next move was, the tense atmosphere with a constant threat of violence kept me hooked.
Nikki Crutchley's elegant writing style pulls you into this gripping thriller and inside the emotional plight of every character. Cleverly structured bringing the past and the present into full view.
An unputdownable read!!

Advance review copy received with thanks from the publisher.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down.
This was an okay read about a cult like family living an isolated life on a remote part of the New Zealand coast. There was a need to suspend belief in regards to some aspects of the plot and as I have said before, that is something I personally am not great at. While there was a degree of suspense, overall the tale was somewhat predictable and meandering, despite its relative short length. While the setting was strong, the characters were not particularly well drawn and I didn't really connect with them and therefore did not really care about them, which lessened the impact of the novel for me. A good premise but there was just something missing.

This was my first book by this author and while I will not race out to read another if one crosses my path I certainly would not dismiss it. Perhaps the author's Miller Hatcher series?

[Sandi Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

To the Sea is a compelling, atmospheric suspense thriller from exciting crime-writing talent Nikki Crutchley. As beautiful and unpredictable as the ocean. As divisive as Iluka, which perches above the cliffs… at once an idyllic home, and the keeper of dark and deadly secrets.

Advance review copy received with thanks from the publisher. More in my next Good Reads blog at www.sandiwallace.com/blog/.

[Kirsten McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and intense read. To The Sea is disturbing and "oh so believable". Not many of the characters were very likeable though... I did enjoy the back and forth between the past and the present, and the twist in one of the relatinships did take me by surprise! Honestly, I can never pick the twist, and this book had plenty of them. I did want someone to like though. My only complaint.
I read this via the Libby app.

[Zellian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iluka is the safe haven that Ana has know for all her eighteen years, her grandfather Hurley had brought his family here many years ago after surviving a terrible boating incident and head injury. A secluded piece of land where they live off of furniture that Hurley makes from the pine trees they grown, plus the money that is made from the artist retreat that is run by her Aunty. When Nikau comes to Iluka under the guise of using the artist retreat to focus on his writing it opens up a whole new outlook for Ana, it also opens up the true past of Iluka. Something the rest of the family would rather keep hidden.

To The Sea has alternating timelines, between Anahita (Ana's mother) twenty three years ago with the beginning of their life in Iluka and Ana during the present. Everything is controlled in Iluka and you see how it all began during Anahita's chapters, how it is still controlled and enforced in Ana's present time chapters. Though Iluka seems like this wonderful place to live, you realize that it actually has a darker and more sinister way of life. The relationships between the other characters and Ana are complex, especially with her own mother and Hurley. It makes you have a lot of compassion for Ana and what she has to go through, I felt like the events in the book helped you to feel more connected to Ana more than anything.

Everything in this book is gradually teased out, the changing perspectives playing a big role in this and helping to keep you reeled in as a reader. There were times I was able to easily see what was happening, other times I was surprised. You can see how the author purposely and gradually brought things to you in the book, however this at times made it feel dragged out instead. Though I felt connected to Ana due to what was happening to her I felt like at the end of the book there wasn't as much growth as I would have hoped, the characters around her I felt they had even less.

Thrillers and crime novels aren't usually my cup of tea but I enjoyed this more than I thought, I would recommend this to others who usually read within these genres but may also just prewarn them on some of the content and themes that come with it. Though these types of books are usually a bit grizzly, I myself felt a bit uncomfortable at points (though, this just may be personal preference.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iluka, perched above the Pacific Ocean, is a beautiful, isolated, place, home to Ana and her family. Her grandfather's sanctuary, somewhere more complicated for her mother and Ana. It is, however, a place where creativity abounds, and Ana's aunt runs an artists' retreat there, her grandfather is a furniture maker and her uncle tends the land. Ana and her mother Anahita seems less settled, less in tune, perhaps not helped by living in the main house with the grandfather, a difficult man to say the least.

TO THE SEA is a shifting timeline novel, with two main narrators - Ana and her mother. This added a level of complication to the story for this reader, which felt very deliberate, crafted, as this is a complex, tricky story full of portent and mystery, steeped in the past and decisions out of the hands of Ana and Anahita, but affecting them, more than just about anybody else. Ana, perhaps because she's so young, seems to constantly be searching outwards, whereas Anahita seems more resigned, ghostly for want of a better word. Everything about their lives is controlled by this place, that seems so idyllic, so safe, so freeing, and yet there are secrets. As is often the way in these sorts of novels, it's the arrival of a stranger - an artist in residence - that forces Ana to make a decision - protect everyone and everything or tell the truth and watch the edifice of their lives collapse.

Atmospheric (in spades), with a terrific sense of place, TO THE SEA is a tense, page turning thriller, with a multi-layered plot that is revealed via the parallel timeframes. It will require commitment from the reader - both in terms of keeping up with the shifting storylines, and in sticking with the growing sense of foreboding and dread. The resolution, I must admit, took this reader by surprise, and looking back to see why, the hidden crimes, the motives, they were all there, it was just the overwhelming sense of foreboding that made me miss some of the clues.

Definitely a page turner, definitely one of those creepy, worrying, disquieting sorts of thrillers that are equal parts fascinating and equal parts designed to make you want to keep all the lights on and question every single place ever defined as paradise or an idyll.


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[Scott Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a departure from previous works where a small town murder is played out and focuses I felt, on well drawn characters and a circumstance with questions that pull you in. I love the sea and the feeling of the land being connected to it, of how people want to do something special for themselves when trauma sets them on a different path. The author plays with time which gave it another added dimension. Recommend reading this one, look forward to the next.

[Melissa Pesu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book, but I found it messy, confusing & disappointing. No pun intended, but I’ll take it.

[Kathleen Penton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chilling suspenseful thriller. Quite disturbing exploration of family abuse, control, lies and deception.

[Johanna Park · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot of bodies piled up in this book and I didn’t especially care about any of them. Which is probably the essential criticism I have. Why did the main ‘villain’ behave in the sociopathic way he did? And why did his daughter exhibit the same lack of empathy? Not enough background and a seeming lack of curiosity from anyone in law enforcement.

[Michael Hutching · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an atmospheric tale, but demands the reader to suspend disbelief in relation to some aspects. Characters are a little two dimensional and not always described in detail. What, for example does the main character Ana actually look like? How is it that Anahita manages to change so rapidly from loving Tom with such intensity to being able to accept what is done to him so easily? Is Nico anything more than a floppy hairstyle? He seems to vacillate between loving Ana, to using Ana, to regretting using Ana. He’s hard to see as a real person. The sexual encounter between Nico and Ana happens with very little preliminary physical contact and the experience is referred to as ‘having sex’ as is Anahita’s more prolonged relationship with Tom. We are given very little physical description of any of these encounters, and while one would not wish to be prurient, it would seem important to have some indication as to the extent of the physical appeal of the characters involved. As with many so called psychological thrillers, it is overlong and the final chapters could easily have been conflated and still maintain the tension and narrative drive. Nico’s fate seems to take ages to be decided and for considerable periods of time, he is left languishing in the office almost forgotten, while other, less compelling events, are described. Hurley seems to wield power that is backed up by physical force and threats, yet it seems inconceivable that he remain unchallenged for so long. His relationship with Ana also seems a little confusing. He shows great love for Ana as a baby but little of this seems to have survived through to her later years. The background was created well and at points in the novel felt both timeless and without specific feeling of place. Names hinted at Maori or Pasifika origins but could equally sound Greek or from some other part of the world. This was an interesting and successful aspect of the novel, lending it a universality.
Despite these frustrations, the narrative kept me reading and although the conclusion was a little too pat, it seemed fitting.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 1 out of 5]

Authors constantly seek fresh perspectives and unique voices to bring their stories to life. Alas, when an author chooses a narrator (in this case, two narrators) who has been raised in a highly isolated and low-education environment.

The limitations of both narrators' knowledge and lack of exposure to the world undermine any authentic or convincing "voice" here. Ana's emotional and psychological complexity is improbable, to the point that I could never truly engage with the book.

In this, any opportunity to explore themes of resilience, personal growth and the desire for connection was lost. Instead of fostering any kind of empathy and understanding, this read was left shaking his head and rolling his eyebrows.

Given the weight of the subject matter – which involves terrible coercion, control, and the emotional, mental and physical punishment leading to murder – the simplistic handling of the material is particularly problematic.

I'd recommend giving this a miss.

⭐ 1/2

[Eliza Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A darker, contemporary thriller for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing. Ana has only ever known her home of Iluka—a beautiful, secluded area of beach where her family lives independently and steers clear of the townfolk nearby. Her grandfather, Hurley, is obsessed with the sea and the thought of protecting his family from the outside world, and Ana trusts him despite his abuse, because she knows nothing else. But when an outsider comes to Iluka, investigating the story of the family, Ana begins to learn the dark secrets that Hurley is so determined to keep... While oftentimes predictable and repetitive, To The Sea is compelling in its cult-like premise and never without something shocking around the corner.

[Rose Carlyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

To The Sea is an enthralling thriller, as beautiful and deadly as an ocean storm. Crutchley achieves a perfect balance between magical and macabre as she draws the reader into an eerie world filled with secrets, lies and twisted love.

[Crimefictioncritic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Nikki Crutchley’s first three books, Nothing Bad Happens Here, No One Can Hear You, and The Murder Club. I’ve had a copy of this one, To the Sea, for months and months after going to a good bit of trouble to buy a copy after the publisher released it in Australia and New Zealand. But since I’ve had a constant flow of read for review books this year and feel an obligation to give those the priority, I’ve only just got to Crutchley’s latest release. It’s such a brilliantly written book, it feels a bit confronting and challenging to review it since I wonder if I can even do justice to it. It’s a thriller, but one with almost a literary feel. I read this easily in a sitting and it’s certainly the kind of story that induces you to do so. Crutchley builds steadily to the action-packed climax, but she paces it so perfectly it never drags. This book and the events within feel so real that it’s as if we readers are glimpsing real life struggles, hidden secrets, pain, and anger.

The book opens with a flashback to twenty-three years before the present day. A man named Hurley survives a near fatal boating accident at sea that claimed the life of his best friend. Hurley emerges from the experience believing the sea took his friend but spared him to give him a second chance at life, and he undergoes a marked personality change. Much to his wife’s chagrin, he sells his business and the family home and moves his wife, daughter, and son to a secluded seafront, pine covered property he names Iluka. Hurley also changes the names of his wife and children, giving them names associated with the sea. The family subsists on sales of the furniture Hurley builds from the pine trees on the property, the operation of an artist's retreat bed-and-breakfast, and by tending the land. While Hurley and his thirteen-year-old daughter believe Iluka and the near hermit-like existence of the family idyllic, his wife never adjusts to it and eventually makes plans to leave with their young son. But thanks to Hurley, Iluka is a bit like the Hotel California. You can check in anytime you like, but can never leave. Not alive. When he discovers his wife had packed to leave, he murders her, but arranges it to look like a suicide and the local authorities accept that was what happened. The story continues to switch back and forth between the past and present, teasing out the family secrets that help us soon understand that there is nothing idyllic about Iluka at all. The sinister place inhabited by a troubled family with shocking secrets would be right at home in a Stephen King horror novel. More murders happen and as the macabre family secrets get revealed to the reader, the suspense builds and builds until the end. Ana, Hurley’s eighteen-year-old granddaughter is the main character. I enjoyed the complexity of her relationship with her grandfather and mother. Crutchley does a fabulous job of giving readers insight into the life of someone who loses her innocence once she discovers the family secrets about gruesome events that occurred before her birth, and how she struggles to make sense of it all against the backdrop of the home her family raised her to love and protect at any cost. This is another great read from Crutchley. Her writing seems effortless, or at least reading it makes it seem so. There are some deeper themes on offer, including the right versus wrong and good versus evil. Crutchley throws in a few surprises on cue for good measure, teases out the secrets along the way, and gives readers a splendid climax. To the Sea is another entertaining thriller and worthy page-turner from 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted New Zealand author Nikki Crutchley.

[Joan Druett · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems years that I have picked up a book that I could not put down. Yesterday was a first for quite a while - and well timed, too, as Wellington was locked down with a red weather warning.

I picked up To the Sea in the library because of the title. Anything maritime rings an instant bell with me. The blurb was enticing, too. Skeletons and family secrets and people telling lies to keep those secrets are definitely come-hither stuff. I had never heard of the writer (though I should have, as she was once shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh) but what the hell. And definitely no regrets.

It's a brilliant book, brilliantly written, and instantly compelling. The prologue, with its detailed description of a particularly sadistic way of shifting a human being out of this life and into the sea, was both creepy and fascinating. It made up the first few pages of what turned out to be an absolute page-turner.

Set on a remote clifftop in rural New Zealand, Illuka is a small family farm run by an extremely relusive group, comprised of grandfather, daughter, granddaughter, son and son's partner. All have names derived from the sea -- not their real names, but bestowed in a forced baptism by the extremely deluded and dangerous grandfather. He rules with the kind of merciless rod that reminds one of a particularly nasty evangelical sect, but his religion is not Christ -- his god is the sea. Mentally and physically damaged after the upsetting of his boat in a storm, he now believes with soul, body and heart that he belongs to the watery goddess, and reckons that so does his small, beaten down family.

That said, his daughter hangs onto the same strange belief, and treats her own daughter, teenaged Ana, with the same singleminded ferocity. Ana is properly subdued, but then a young, attractive journalist, Nikau, arrives, and upsets the apple basket with his pointed queries. And what he is after is the story of murder that he believes the family is hiding.

It is not the only murder. The sacrifice to the sea described in the prologue is by no means the only skeleton in this family closet. And, in this remarkable psychological thriller, every character is in acute danger of being a sacrifice him- or herself.

Thoroughly recommended. I will be looking for more books by this very promising writer.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikki Crutchley’s new atmospheric thriller, To The Sea, opens brutally, with a gruesome crime committed on a beach hemmed in by towering cliffs on a wild, remote stretch of New Zealand’s coast.

And it’s this same idyllic beach, 23 years later, that’s part of a secluded coastal property, Iluka – home to 18-year-old narrator Ana – the menacing setting for the unfolding story.

Crutchley’s descriptions of Iluka are immersive, the landscape becoming a key character, in equal measures breathtaking and threatening – hallmarks synonymous with the growing corpus of Kiwi noir fiction.

Against this backdrop, Ana’s grandfather has cut the family off from the world, ostensibly to “protect” their subsistence lifestyle, but in reality to unbridle his megalomania. With little else to compare her life, Ana finds no fault with the hard graft, strict rules and barbarous punishments he dishes out.

That is, until a stranger arrives and prompts her to question the past, fraying her naïve acceptance of her family's lifestyle. As she unearths a web of dark secrets and lies, she finds she's in a precarious position with the power to protect or destroy Iluka.

Besides her evocative landscapes, in To the Sea – Crutchley’s fourth crime novel since her 2018 debut Nothing Bad Happens Here – she provides discomfiting insights into domestic violence, and explores intergenerational abusive control.

Her pacing and ability to boil tension is also skilful – I often thought I’d guessed the twists, but was gratified to be wrong.

But I also felt there were a few minor weaknesses.

At times I needed to suspend my disbelief, to ignore the sense that characters and events had been implausibly jammed in to suit the plot. I also wished for more development in the crucial relationship between Ana and the stranger who prompts her dark discoveries – again, I felt their hookup lacked a bit of plausibility.

These minor flaws don’t detract from Crutchley’s captivating storyline, along with its masterfully uncomfortable tension and atmosphere; and grisliness that’s not easy to forget.

[Poppy Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a darkly beautiful psychological thriller that deftly balances the taut line formed when coercion, control, love, violence, innocence and family loyalties are combined.
The ocean - threatening, unpredictable and beautiful - is a mirror to the strange and devastasting events that play out in the cultish community of Iluka over several generations. These people have created a safehaven from the world in a secluded pine plantation set high on ocean cliffs. They have turned their backs on mainstream life, embracing an authentic life that alligns with nature, earth and sea. Locals living nearby, outside the padlocked gates, are justifiably unnerved by things they know or have heard. All is not well in this isolated community...
The story is told through two quite different perspectives, Ana and her mother, Anahita. Neither can leave. For eighteen year old Ana, the strict rules, simple work, tightly held secrets and repetitive days are interrupted when a stranger arrives. The charming, slightly naive photographer is staying at the artist's retreat on the property. He befriends Ana and as the truth about the past starts to unravel, it becomes apparent that something chilling, complex and utterly sinister is at play. An atmospheric, disturbing and breathtaking mystery that will appeal to readers who are intrigued by books that examine the darkness and savagery of human nature.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secrets and lies abound in To the Sea, the dark thriller had me on the edge of my seat many times as I turned the pages to unearth the truth.
Nikki Crutchley has cleverly told the family's story starting twenty three years ago with alternating chapters telling Ana's story from the present day .
It is a simple life for Ana living on a remote piece of land with her mother, grandfather, Uncle and aunt , she does not attend school but helps with the work on the property and loves to swim in the Pacific Ocean most days , accessing the beach by climbing down a rope ladder.
I found this a gripping read from the horrific opening chapter and will be keen to read other work by Crutchley . Her descriptive writing skillfully included some unique characteristics of her homeland New Zealand " take a left onto an unmarked gravel road and then veer off down a rutted dirt track".
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys the twists and turns of a suspenseful novel, away from fast paced city life, while revealing secrets given to the sea.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book to read and review .

[chelsea reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

to the sea follows a cult like family who live in a remove part of new zealand. they live off the land, and where necessary they rent out a cabin for income.

while to the sea sounded good in theory, i found the execution was somewhat lacking. there were plenty of interesting things going on in iluka – ranging from manipulation to murder.

the book got a little boring sometimes with the time jumps (the book alternated between anahita many years ago, and ana in the present). i found anahita to be rather boring and unrelatable. ana was tolerable. while i enjoyed nikau, he also became somewhat annoying in the middle (only to be good again by the end).

this book tackles some tough topics. the patriarch of the family is heavily sexist and full of himself – forcing his family to live away from society and by his rules. it was difficult to read some of the scenes where abuse was laid on certain characters (including infants).
(i believe there was also hints at child sexual assault, but i could have misread the situation).

to the sea is labelled a “thriller”, although there was really nothing that thrilling about it. it was a mystery that handled some difficult topics.

overall, while the plot was solid, i think to the sea could’ve worked better with some more relatable characters. while our main character and nikau were the most interesting, it wasn’t enough to keep me invested.

if you’re looking for a dark book that tackles some heavy topics and delves into psychological trauma, i think this book would be a great fit for you. if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller, it may not be the one.

[Sharon J · Rating 4 out of 5]

To The Sea by Nikki Crutchley is a profound, dark and disturbing story that left me feeling very uncomfortable.

Well written with great character development.

Illuka is an area on a cliff edge close to the ocean and is superbly described; the atmosphere of a rugged coast line and rough seas matches the story line which is full of dark, deadly secrets.

The story is told from two perspectives - the now is Ana and between 24 and 14 years previously is told by her mother, Anahita - and it took me a while to feel comfortable with the jumping back and forth in time; I’m actually not sure that it worked very well as I almost stopped reading because I found it annoying. I did persevere and preferred it as it moved to being in the present rather than the past.

I would recommend this novel as it was a captivating story with an unexpected ending!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for a copy to read and write an honest review.

[Jeannie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Nikki Crutchley's previous novels and enjoyed them all so I was looking forward to reading To The Sea, which was billed as more of a psychological study, rather than a small town murder mystery. Although a departure from the style of her previous work, it did not disappoint.

After a dreadful accident, Hurley craved a safe haven from the rigors of the world, and he found his idyll at Iluka, his small part of Pacific Ocean paradise. He will do anything to protect the life he has built there for his family - those who support and/or submit to his expectations. Through the eyes of Ana, Hurley's granddaughter, we slowly see what lies behind the facade; controlling behaviour, in the name of love, and how all inhabitants of the small slice of paradise are affected.
An intense read which looks closely at human behaviour, needs and wants and how far each family member will go to protect what they love.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I"ve read in a long time. Suspenseful, atmospheric and thrilling from the very beginning, it was a joy to read from start to finish.
Following the story of young Ana at her home Iluka, she soon finds dark secrets which threaten to bring the family down to the ground. Ana's and Anahita's stories are told over 24 years and almost mirror each other in the people in their lives who challenge what they have and the decisions they make and both have many twists throughout and while Ana may feel she is the one to break the chain from Iluka, in the end she is realises the power of Iluka and the hold it has on people.
It also reminds me of Where the Crawdads Sing, with the location playing almost as major role as any of the characters and this is a definite next read for those who loved Crawdads.
#ToTheSea #NikkiCrutchley #Netgalley

[Stacey Broadbent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulously thrilling tale from Nikki Crutchley. She never fails to keep me engaged and invested in the characters, and she always surprises me.

To the Sea opens with a heart wrenching scene and continues to pack a punch throughout.

After a boat accident took the life of his best friend and left Hurley barely alive, he decided to make some changes for his family and their way of living. A move to iluka, a peaceful piece of land overlooking the sea, was to be their fresh start. But not everyone was on board, and people on the outside didn’t understand their way of living.

A truly chilling tale told from several POVs and in both past and present time. To the Sea will draw you in and hold you hostage until you unravel the truth.