Robyn Harding, internationally bestselling author of The Party and The Swap, is back with a deliciously twisted story of friendship, retribution and betrayal.
Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets – no one ever does – but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her car.
Parked in a secluded spot by the beach, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface but, instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die. She’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, and is a prisoner in her own home. Lee has now thwarted her one chance to escape her life.
Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage. Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until Hazel unexpectedly returns the next morning. The women strike up an unlikely friendship and then, one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her. But Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems – and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was …
The Drowning Woman is an absorbing and compulsive page-turner, told in four parts that alternate in perspective between Lee and Hazel. Harding is clearly a master of suspense. Every time I reached the end of a chapter I found myself immediately turning the page to read on, and each of the four parts ends on an unexpected scene that will leave you sweaty-palmed.
The number of twists and cliffhangers this book delivers might become fatiguing in less skilled hands, but here they all feel effortless, perfectly placed and utterly believable, propelling the story’s breakneck momentum. Harding is the kind of storyteller who has mastered her devices so that they feel invisible to her readers, keeping us fully immersed in the story.
The Drowning Woman explores some timely social issues. The spike in both homelessness and domestic violence that we’ve seen globally since the COVID-19 pandemic, disproportionately impacting women, creates a charged backdrop for this compelling narrative. The representation of both Lee and Hazel feels believable, authentic and sensitive. Harding blows those tired old tropes – ‘why doesn’t she just leave?’ and ‘that would never happen to me’ – out of the water; you can’t help but empathise with them.
Despite its dark themes, there is a beautifully controlled light and shade to this narrative, with moments of reprieve in the easy dialogue and likeable characters. This is the kind of thriller that you read to get to the conclusion, so I don’t want to give away even a hint as to how it ends – but I will say that I was more than satisfied.
Harding’s fans are in for a treat with this latest release. For those of us coming to her work for the first time, The Drowning Woman is a fantastic place to start.
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