Title: The Dive

Author: Sara Ochs

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Bantam

Publication Date: 20th July 2023

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

Escape to paradise.
Scuba diving instructor Cass leads her students out for their first dive off the beautiful coast of Koh Sang, Thailand’s world-famous party island. It’s supposed to be a life-changing experience, but things quickly spiral out of control…

Leave your secrets behind.
By the time she gets back to the shore, one of her students is dead, another badly injured, and she knows that her idyllic life is about to be smashed to pieces on the rocks.

But don’t get lost for ever…
Because someone is making sure that backpackers never leave paradise – one murder at a time. And Cass has a feeling she might be next…

Review:

I think it’s always fun to read a tense thriller set in a beautiful paradise and The Dive totally delivers on that front! We follow two young women, Cass, a dive instructor, and Brooke, a travel influencer, who are both living on a small island in Thailand. However, life in this paradise isn’t as idyllic as it first appears. People are being murdered and since most of the characters are concealing dark secrets – it’s impossible to know who to trust.

I really enjoyed this dramatic and propulsive debut. The narrative is split into two perspectives, and both are intriguing and murky enough to create doubt in the reader’s mind about who the villains and victims really are. There is a fantastic sense of atmosphere to The Dive. Its setting may be scorching but there is something undeniably chilling about this thriller which delivers shocks, twists and a rather intriguing ending which I found particularly effective. Dark, mysterious and intensely readable – I would highly recommend packing The Dive for your holiday reading this summer!

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Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon