No Escape/The Blue

No Escape is a thriller written by Lucy Clarke and it was previously published as The Blue in January of 2015. It also has a 4/5 on Goodreads and a 4.5/5 on Amazon UK.

This is one of the few thriller novels that I have ever read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who generally doesn't read thrillers. If all thrillers were written like this one then I might read them more often.

The novel is a bi linear story which is narrated by Lana. During a traumatic experience with her father, Lana and her best friend, Kitty, decide to travel the world, to just get away.

They spin a globe and decide on the Philippines islands as their starting point, while there they meet a member of a yacht who invites them onboard for dinner and some drinks.

After an amazing night of chatting and sleeping on the yacht with the group of wanderers, who apparently all pay for their stay from island to island and take on new crew using a group vote, Lana and Kitty decide they want to stay on the crew as they voyage from there to remote islands and eventually anchor in New Zealand for the monsoon season.

During their stay on the yacht named The Blue, Lana and Kitty form strong friendships with the crew and Lana even finds a romantic relationship with one of them but things turn sinister when one of the crew members goes missing and is assumed dead. Lana is convinced that something is wrong and that one of the crew members knows more than they are saying about the death. She eventually decides to leave when she suspects Kitty of sleeping with her love interest and she spends the rest of her time in New Zealand, making a life for herself through her art.

Fast forward eight months and Lana is still in New Zealand when she hears a radio broadcast that informs her that The Blue has sunk out at sea and that the crew are afloat. She rushes to the search and rescue marina where she eagerly awaits the return of the crew and Kitty while remembering everything that she and the crew went through during their travels.

This book is amazingly written, I could definitely imagine the islands and the yacht in perfect clarity and there was such a massive plot twist that I did not see coming at all. I will definitely be reading more of this author.

Thanks for reading xx