Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

The newest book from the author of “Girl on the Train”.  It follows in the suspense mold, but there were some parts that dragged a bit for me.

Set in an English town, the story follows the tragic stories of young-ish girls and women who tragically die by the “Drowning Pool”.  It’s a spot on the river were several women have jumped or have been pushed to their deaths.  It opens with the death of Nel Abbott at the pool.  Did she jump?  Was she pushed?  Her sister Jules comes home to finalize things and take responsibility for her niece Lena.

Lena is a rebellious teenager whose best friend jumped in the same place as well.  The story meanders between various points of views of families impacted by the latest death.  We also get the story from the police prospective as well.  The middle of the books is where things really pick up and we start to think we know what actually happened.  Nel Abbot was writing a history of the “Drowning Pool” and the various women that had went to their deaths there.  Could that have something to do with her death?

Like the “Girl on the Train” or the similar “Gone Girl”, there is a twist that the very end that I have to say I didn’t see coming.  The reader thinks things are resolved, but then a lightning bolt comes out of the blue and you start to think of the whole book differently.

Other than the very beginning, the book picked up pace as the chapters went on, and by the time I got to the last 150 or so pages, I couldn’t put the book down.