In Deep Water

by Christobel Kent

What happens when 'putting yourself out there' means 'putting yourself in danger'?

Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is.

Heather is at the airport when she sees him, the man who raped her fifteen years ago. Jake is with another woman and instantly Heather understands - this woman is in trouble. She buys a ticket and follows them. She doesn't necessarily know what she's going to do, but she knows she needs to do something.

What should have been a perfectly pleasant weekend away quickly descends into something much darker. As these two women come ever closer each other - and to Jake - it becomes increasingly unclear who will walk away from the weekend with their life.

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2022

About the author

Christobel Kent was born in London in 1962 and now lives in Cambridge with her husband and four children; in between she lived in Florence. She worked in publishing for several years, most recently as Publicity Director at Andre Deutsch. Her debut novel A Party in San Niccolo, was published in 2003.

Series:
* Sandro Cellini

Reviews

[Danielle-Gemma💜 · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a weird book. A hard read because honestly it was so bad. Weird story, weird characters and a weird ending. I don’t know how I forced myself to finish it, I do not recommend!

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blub certainly made this one sound interesting.

Whilst at the airport, Heather spots a couple and immediately realises that the woman is in trouble.
As she knows the guy who's called Jake and he did something terrible to her 15 years ago.

So on a whim, so books a flight and follows them to Greece.
It's slightly unplusible - but hey, it's a great hook and the fact that the story is set out of season so the location isn't at is most stunning is a nice turn of pace.

The narrative flips between the various POVs as we mainly follow Heather and Sukie (the new girl with Jake) and one aspect which distanced my enjoyment of this book was that I just could really connect with these characters.

There's the imminent threat of Jake's good boy image after Sukie had met him through a dating site no really being true.
Whilst it's commendable that the author is happy to tackle trigger warning difficult subjects, this just felt a little lazy and dull.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a quarter of the way into this book, I gave up questioning why some of the characters were acting the way they did.
From then in, I enjoyed the book far more.
It had a tense almost countdown feel to it,with numbered days and the knowledge that the island visit was of short duration.
Good multi person view point.
Overall its another entertaining read from this author.

[Karen Fleming · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t find any of the characters or plot very believable. Not sure what Sukie was doing with Jake in the first place. Heather was a bit more interesting but didn’t really live up to expectations. I found myself confused by similar characters and plot lines, then just a bit bored by it all.

[Jamad]

DNF at page 50 - didn’t know what was going on and didn’t care!

[LindyLouMac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christobel Kent is not an author whose books I read very often in fact the last time I did so was in 2011, a long time ago. They were two of her earlier novels and they were both set in Italy where I was living at the time, so this was probably the reason. Her latest novel ‘In Deep Water’ is mainly set in Greece and it appealed when I found it in the library recently.

One of the protagonists Sukie has been using an online dating app, not an uncommon practice these days. This story shows how dangerous it can be though when Sukie agrees to go on a short trip to Greece with Jake, a man she hardly knows. By coincidence they are seen at the airport by Heather who just happened to have a disastrous relationship with this same man some fifteen years earlier. Fiction yes and written for our entertainment, but really would someone in real life have then done what Heather did. Somehow for this reason the whole story just did not really click with me.

In conclusion although this did not appeal to me I think if you are already a fan of Christobel Kent, you believe in so many unlikely coincidences happening, or are a fan of the genre you will hopefully find it more entertaining than I did.

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[Gill Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok story but too many coincidences for me.

[Peter Smith-Cullen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t be bothered

It was too tiring, seems like it was written by someone trying to occupy themselves out of boredom by boring us

[Soo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Ridiculous plot. The characterisation was appalling; a sixth former could have done better. Very immature writing. Won’t be reading any more from this author

[Alyson Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Christobel Kent's novels over the years, and thoroughly enjoyed them, so when her latest came up for grabs on net galley, I grabbsied it - fast. I read this over one day - it was that gripping. There is no let up with the pace of the story which swept me along. It's told over a long weekend, from multiple character viewpoints, which sounds confusing, but isn't and each segment left you on a mini cliffhanger. The main protagonist, naive, sweet 27 year old Sukie, decides to be adventurous and accepts her older new boyfriend's (Jake) invite to Kyros, the island of his youth, for a long weekend to get to know him better. Downside - it's November, (so it's a bit cold and bleak on the island - and very quiet, which Kent evokes very well) and Sukie's case goes missing, and the romantic getaway cottage is chilly, isolated and has no electric, and Jake, is always distracted and busy with 'business'. At the airport, Heather, spots Jake and a slew of horrible nightmarish memories attached to her encounter with him, pour back- she fears for Sukie's wellbeing so decides to follow the couple. Kent keeps the tension ramped up, with nothing outright being said by anyone on the island by but there are a lot of sideways looks, knowing glances, a secret shared history, and a pair of elderly ex-hippie neighbours who know more than they are telling about the past; all of which leaves Sukie edgy and suspicious that Jake is not Mr Nice Guy. This is a fine domestic noir transplanted to a Greek island, and also with some of the drama happening back in the UK, as friends/family go online to piece together the clues of who 'Jake' is and what he's done. I found the ending rather rushed, everything was over and done with and boom, bye bye reader. But otherwise this was a luscious slice of psychological noir awash in undercurrents. Kent at her best.

[Megan Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is. Heather is at the airport when she sees a young woman with an older man - and immediately she understands that the woman is in danger. Because in fifteen years, Heather hasn't been able to forget what Jake did to her. And the next thing she knows, she's buying a plane ticket and following them. What should have been a perfectly pleasant weekend away quickly descends into something much darker. As these two women come ever closer to each other - and to Jake - it becomes increasingly unclear who will walk away from the weekend with their life.

I just really did not like or connect with this book. Kent writes about some very serious subjects and yet it felt quite silly and childlike. For me, I did not find Heather's actions very believable so I lost interest from early on. Kent writes this from multiple perspectives without really explaining who they are initially. Instead of allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of what was going on through different eyes, I just got confused and did not know what was happening. I think it would have been better if the perspectives had only been Sukie and Heather.

I did like that this was set on a Greek island but you do not really experience the beauty of the landscape. Towards the end, Kent ramps up the intensity and danger but came too late, I had lost interest and did not really care what happened.

'In Deep Water' really was not for me and I just did not enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little for an advance copy.

[Farrin Rahman · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me way too long to finish this book and at times I thought I wouldn’t be able to. As the story continued I expected at one point to feel SOMETHING or remotely care about any singular character or where the plot was even going but I couldn’t muster up the slightest feeling for anyone. To be completely honest I finished the book just to finish it. It’s almost like the author had to submit an assignment and she just realised it was 10:39pm the day that it was due. Because what even was that ending? Anyways, needless to say I’m relieved that’s over.

P.S. a lot of typos! Whoever was editing was off the henny

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, but all the time I was reading it, I was thinking, "This would be so much better if...."

It would've been so much better if the author hadn't jumped around in time. For me, it was so disorienting that I almost gave up on the book in the first few chapters. Thankfully, after that it settled into chronological order.

It would've been so much better if the author had stayed with the main character (Heather) more of the time. Of course, it made sense to have scenes from Sukie's point of view, but Heather's boyfriend and Sukie's friend were just annoying.

It would've been so much better if the author had found ways to avoid relying on coincidence so much. For instance, Sukie's mum rings Sukie's best friend because she's worried about her -- and yet, it's made very clear that Sukie's mum doesn't usually care two hoots what she does. And lo and behold, Sukie's mum knows all about the reputation of the obscure Greek island they're going to, how lucky is that? Then at the end, all the other characters manage to work out where she is, just in time to burst into the cabin to save her.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced thriller couldn't put it down . More of a 3.5 star due to what appears to be typo's in places disconnecting a few sentences here and there.
Trigger warning themes of rape, domestic violence and drug/people trafficking.

[Angela Henty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, got two thirds through and gave up.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good solid novel with plenty of twists and turns to go at, had me page turning well into the night and the ending didn’t disappoint, good characters and a great little story!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exciting but unpleasant.

[JoAnne Muller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda drawn out and boring for me