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Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman

Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough; Mark a handsome investment banker with a bright future. They seem to have it all, until Mark loses his job and cracks start to appear in their perfect life.

But they’re determined to make it work. They book their dream honeymoon and trust that things will work out – after all, they have each other.

On the tropical island of Bora Bora Mark takes Erin scuba diving. Mark is with her – she knows he’ll keep her safe. Everything will be fine. Until they find something in the water.

Erin and Mark decide to keep their discovery a secret — after all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events… which will endanger everything they hold dear.


We had all read the book, which is a good start, and were captured by the start - Erin digging a grave. 
Given that the book was called Something In The Water, and the blurb references a big find in the sea, we discussed how much went on beforehand. It was something like 100 pages until the paper/bag discovery. We thought the supporting cast discussed in the preceding 100 pages provided too many 'other stories'. Terrorism, IVF, Euthanasia. All were speedily worked through so not really developed, and were they really needed?

The scene where they found the paper/bag was quite creepy and we all thought very movie-esque. We went on to discuss whether Catherine pictured herself playing Erin and how much her job had provided experiences for her writing (first class lounges!) 

I loved reading about how the other half lived, the shopping in Chanel, posh menu tasting and champagne quaffing but some found this off putting, almost boastful. We did talk about how wealth is relative. These were clearly a couple not shopping at Asda yet they were worried how financially stable they were.  

Whereas we liked (on the whole) the wealth sections, we couldn't get away with Erin. Erin's actions became increasingly frustrating and quite horror story-esque when she turned the phone on (again). Then the USB stick. We spent some time talking about how ridiculously easy was it for them to transport diamonds in to the country. This alongside our knowledge of drug smuggling thanks to previous Book of the Month, Trap, makes us quite the experts when it comes to airport customs! 

We obviously talked about Mark. The reader was never really given much to go on with him and I just didn’t get his motivation for wanting to ghost Erin. Only two days after he returned from honeymoon he had her followed. Some of us thought it obvious that he never really loved her. Some of us thought it was all an image thing, for both him and her. 

We discussed the ending and how neat or not it was. One of the group thought it was definitely lined up for a sequel after all, Erin now owes a favour to Eddie. There certainly were a few loose ends left - would the bodies stay hidden? Would the payments from the Swiss bank account be found by the police once they began? What would the favour be? 

There were some interesting twists, a bit more depth than we were perhaps expecting and we thought it would make a good summer read. But overall for everyone of us that liked it, there was a counterpart who didn't.

We awarded it practically 7 (6.75) with scores between 4 and 8.  



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