The Castaways: The gripping Sunday Times bestseller from the million-copy bestselling author, now a major TV series on Paramount+

I really enjoyed this book. Lucy writes really well, keeps you hooked, and the short chapters make you want to read 'just one more', 'just one more' before you put it down. The first book of Lucy's that I read was No Escape which was excellent too, and I will be reading more of her wonderful creations.

The Castaways is cleverly narrated by 2 voices. Erin in the present, and how she is trying to find answers to the disappearance of a plane that her sister was on. Then Lori, which charters the plane crash and her time stranded on an island (that’s not giving too much away I think!?!) The voices are distinct and you feel for each sister dealing with their grief and loss. I really needed to keep reading as I needed to know when/how/if the stories merged. I thought Lori’s storyline was really tense, Clarke really ramped up the “what people do when there are no rules” theme. There was a sinister air about it. The pace of the book is great as well, with quick chapters and a steady back and forth between the 2. Also a few great twists, I guessed one, but not the reason why. 😊 The only thing for me is one of the twists, I just didn’t buy it. I thought it was a great plot twist, but I couldn’t see how it would then pan out the way it did. Too many questions from it. I don’t do spoilers so I can’t say what it is! Happy for people to drop me a message to discuss. I think this is a strong 3.5 stars. It’s entirely my fault that I was distracted, the book was great, life just got in the way.

There are some books that you just have to throw caution to the wind with and enjoy the ride. I call these books Die Hard books - is the plot plausible? Maybe not, but who cares! As long as they are well written, sometimes it doesn't matter so much if the edges of realism are bent a bit. This was that style of book for me - open it up, forget your worries and allow yourself to be entertained. Castaway is written in alternating chapters. Two sisters tell their points of view - one from present day trying to find her sister who disappeared in a plane crash and the other sister from the past describing her story of surviving the plane crash and becoming a castaway. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way - one of which i guessed at but the majority I didn't see coming. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it over the course of two sunny days. It was a page turned which kept me fully engaged from beginning to end. Highly recommended by me and I look forward to reading more from this author.

The premise of The Castaways has all the makings for a gripping escapist thriller but sadly the execution lets it down and after a strong start it quickly becomes more of a snooze with pages of repetition and very little happening. The story is centred around the relationship between sisters Lori and Erin Holme, who since the death of their mother in childhood have come to rely on each other, particularly in times of trouble. When Lori’s husband admitted to having an affair and announced his intention to leave her she moved into Erin’s spare bedroom and soon after booked them both a holiday to Fiji. That was two years ago and after a furious argument whilst in Fiji, Erin failed to show for the small inter-island flight that Lori ended up boarding alone. When the plane failed to reach its destination and the ensuing searches revealed nothing, with all passengers presumed dead, guilt-ridden Erin returned home but has been unable to move on with her life and remains consumed by the mystery of what actually happened to Lori’s plane. When the pilot turns up alive in a Fijian hospital it provides journalist Erin with an opportunity to finally get some answers once and for all and perhaps start living again. The story follows a dual narrative split between Erin in the present and Lori in past, hence the reader knows that Lori did actually survive the plane crash from early on, which is obviously more than Erin does. As Erin flies out to Fiji convinced that the seriously ailing pilot is withholding details her investigative strategy relies solely on getting him to talk and this quickly proves far from revelatory, basically treading water whilst Lori’s story of the actual aftermath plays catch up. This leaves plenty of time for Erin to bleat on about how guilty she feels about missing that flight and the things she said in their final argument. The whole desert island scenario isn’t the most credible by any means but I suspect it would have worked better if it had been a little bit more dynamic. As it is Lori, who has been through numerous cycles of IVF and desperately wants a baby, finds herself caring for a four-month-old baby after his mother dies on the flight, meaning the reader gets plenty of colour on childcare intermingled with pages of Lori whining about how much she misses her sister and little action. The passengers that survive the crash all have clear roles in the story (potential boyfriend, loose cannon and shifty pilot) and therefore it is very easy to predict where its all heading and lacks tension. I struggled initially to distinguish between Lori and Erin and whilst their relationship might be complex, neither of them are memorably well-characterised or easy to connect with, meaning that I was never truly invested in the outcome. Whilst there is a late flurry of tension and a resolution that I found surprisingly credible to conclude the story I would struggle to classify the resulting book as a thriller given the baggy and lacklustre middle.

Sisters Erin and Lori are on the holiday of a lifetime to Fiji. They are due to take a short flight to one of the smaller islands but, after they argue, only Lori turns up for the flight. Her light plane disappears without trace. Erin spends the subsequent two years lobbying the authorities to keep searching, and she scours every news story she can find, pinning articles to the wall of Lori’s bedroom in their London flat. As media interest wanes, Erin fights on, refusing to accept the worst, until one day the story is back on every news channel. The pilot has been found alive, seriously ill, living under an assumed name and suffering amnesia. Erin is sure of one thing: she will fly back to Fiji and force him to remember what happened to Lori. The story is told from 2 points of view and across two timelines. Erin’s is in the present day as she follows leads in Fiji and thinks back to how she and Lori came to quarrel on that fateful day. The other timeline is from two years earlier and, in heart-pounding detail, shows Lori as she boards the doomed flight with five other passengers, the stewardess and the pilot. The two lead characters are likeable and I was eager to turn the pages to find out what had happened. And it wasn’t what I expected… I’m now keen to read other books by this author.

Hard to put down. Brilliant story that takes you into the minds of the players. Plenty of twists and scary bits

Just when you think you’ve figured it out, there’s another twist. A good read.

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What an excellent novel to read on my second week of my holiday…… I did not want it to end and when it did it wasn’t a predictable ending! Love the book so much will be buying other titles by the author from now on.

Another great book. Came fast.