Because who doesn’t want to be castaway on a beach right now?
Castaways – the blurb
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…
Makes you want to stay at home
A plane crash leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island was just the ticket for my in between Christmas and New Year reading. I’m strangely attracted to disaster books. This coupled with cliff hanger chapters meant I raced through it in no time. It’s not just a disaster novel though, something is clearly not quite right amongst the survivors of the crash. Clarke’s decision to flit between the now and then using the sister of one of the passengers as a ‘now’ counterpoint was a brilliant move. What happened two years ago? Where did the plane crash? And if Lori didn’t die in the crash, is she still alive?
Whilst I liked sister Erin’s present day quest, I did find the whole sister bond grated after a time. I also found it difficult initially to differentiate between the male survivors. The inclusion of a baby was a risky move but a good one. Sonny certainly pulled at my heart strings thinking how difficult it was to look after a baby in clean, comfortable England. I’m not sure how I would have coped on a desert island even after 3 children. I won’t reveal the ending but it kept me guessing. Who could I trust? Who was going to live? Would Erin ever find out what happened?
Whilst there’s no chance of me seeing a tropical beach at the moment, with plane crashes, diving knives and hidden motives to deal with I’m happy just to participate via my armchair.