REVIEW: Deep Water

 Deep Water
Author: Emma Bamford

The blurb for this book reminded me a bit of a true story -- the murders on Plumyra Atoll. Wealthy couple sails their boat to an Atoll to enjoy a few days in the sun, only to discover there are already two other people there. The two younger people sailed to the Atoll to escape drug charges and their boat motor conked out. They coexist for awhile....then things turn bad.  Several weeks later, the druggie couple sails into port with the wealthy couple's boat. The wealthy couple is never seen again. 

The story in Deep Water is similar but different. A naval ship encounters a boat at sea sending out distress signals. An injured man and his wife are on board. The woman confesses to doing something bad and killing people. She agrees to tell the whole story.....they sailed to an isolated island to enjoy the beach only to find there was a group of sailors already there. Things go fine for awhile.....but when it goes bad, it goes bad quickly. 

This story was just ok for me. The pacing was a bit too slow, and I felt like I was reading a reworking of a true story/earlier book by another author. I expected a bit more excitement. Slow burn is sometimes too slow when there really isn't an exciting moment until the very end. The ending just didn't pack enough power to justify the slow, slow pacing. It just took to long to get there for me. 

I'm glad I read the story, but it did disappoint me a bit. 

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Gallery Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**