Book review: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins (first published in 2017 by Transworld publishers)

Jules (not Julia) didn’t answer the phone. She and her sister Nel have not spoken in years, despite the latter’s attempts. 

Nel’s voicemail was no different to the hordes of others she had left in the past, so Jules did not call her back. However, this time, the call was different, because a few days after the call, Nel is dead.

Jules must now face her childhood demons and her motivation for the silent war with her sister in order to understand Nel’s apparent suicide. Tasked with caring for her sister’s teenage daughter, and surrounded by Nel’s obsession with the body of water which claimed her life, Jules needs to unravel a web of fiction interspersed with history in order to learn the truth. 

What she does realise, sadly, is that things left unsaid may stay silent to the grave, and that not everything we believe is true or just.

Strangely, Nel was not the first woman to lose her life in the Drowning Pool, and Jules and her niece must trace the other drownings in order to uncover the silent connection these women shared. 

Hopefully they can do this before more women are lured to the murky depths of the pool, and before its dark waters wash away what little truth there is to be discovered.

Luckily for lovers of whodunits and classy twists, Paula Hawkins has delivered a superb offering in Into the Water. Grab your coffee and prepare for a single serving of awesomeness, because you will not want to put this book down. 

A noir style of narrative recounts wholly unpredictable events for an overall superb reading experience, and Hawkins cements her obvious literary prowess. If she scores a hat-trick and writes anything remotely as excellent as Into the Water, Hawkins will forever be remembered as a literary great.

WATCH: Book trailer – Into the Water

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