This book! What a rush! It kept me on my toes until the very last chapter! What really happened to Joey Proctor? What does he want from Alex now? Who is John Otis? so many questions! But they all get answered in this heart-pounding story! The author's writing style made the story(both present and past) unfold at a perfect pace! He created a very intense character in Alex, and does a great job at making him intentionally unlikeable. You don't really want to root for Alex. This was a delicious reading experience that I happily devoured. I can't wait to see what else JP Smith has in store with his future work!

I really tried with this book but it just wasn't for me.The storyline was not always believable,although the initial pages I thought good.

Loved this. Have just read it in one sitting. Am def going to buy his other books now.
Alex was a camp swimming teacher and left a boy on a raft. A boy who was scared and couldn’t swim. He went missing. The camp had a scary story about a boy being taken every 7 years....told from Alex’s perspective and from a detectives perspective too. Very good.
5/5 on goodreads

This is my first book to read by JP Smith although it is his 7th novel.

***************minor spoilers****************

Alex Mason has a picture perfect life. He has two daughters, a beautiful wife, and a lucrative career. He is a schmutz, but he is a successful one, at least. That is, until something that happened 21 years ago comes back to haunt him. Who knows what he did? and what do they want?

I read through this book rather quickly because I wanted to find out the answer to the above questions. I didn't like Alex (we really weren't supposed to) but I found it hard to like or relate to anyone in this story. Smith is good with suspense and has an easy to read, engaging style. The story went quickly and kept me fairly interested. However, after all the flash backs and crazy happenings in the present, not only are there a lot of loose ends, but the bad guy is such a disappointment. I almost wish I had not wasted my time on the book. I am giving it 3 stars though, for Smith's writing and for the fact that it kept me engaged.

A solid 4.5 star book. This book kept me flipping pages and enjoying, and had enough twists & turns, chills, and thrills that I didn’t get bored or want to set it down early on. It started good, and kept going at that pace until the end. A creepy story, which kept me on the edge.
Will be using in a challenge, as well as recommending to the members of chapter chatter pub!

The story itself is full of twists and is fast paced. The main character isn't exactly likeable but that doesn't take away from the story. Overall it's a good read. However, the ending isn't satisfying. Yes you get a shocking ending to the big mystery. Unfortunately there are a lot of things left unanswered and it's some of the things that kept the reader engaged and wondering throughout the story.

THE DROWNING, by J. P. Smith is a dark psychological thriller published in January 2019 by Sourcebooks Landmark, is his seventh novel, but the first novel I have read by this author.

The novel opens with a group of young boys around a campfire, while the camp counsellors tell them a scary story…

“One night, every seven years since Camp Waukeelo was founded in 1937,” one of the counsellors begins, “long after lights out, a local man, John Otis, would sneak into the camp through the woods beyond the bunks and take one of the younger boys.”

Every seven years, a boy disappears from Camp Waukeelo.
Who will be next?

Twenty years ago, a little boy at camp disappeared. His name was Joey Proctor and he couldn’t swim, but that didn’t stop camp counsellor Alex Mason from leaving him out on a raft in the middle of the lake as a form of punishment. Alex only meant to scare the kid, teach him a lesson. He didn't mean to forget about him. But now Joey is gone... and his body is never found.

Fast forward twenty years later, arrogant Alex is rich and successful, an extravagant house and married with daughters.

But no one knows what happened that summer at camp…or does someone know what he did?

The Drowning is a well-written fast-paced plot with believable ruthless characters and a suspense level that keeps rising to the end. I found the ending was a surprise but acceptable.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes psychological thrillers.

Many thanks SourceBooks Landmark via Netgalley for my digital copy.

Best book I have read in a while. Bad decision by teenaged swim instructor at a summer camp comes back to haunt him. Author had a way of keep me reading to find out what was going to happen next. Great character development. Defiantly will be looking for more from JP Smith

I received a free e-copy of The Drowning by J.P. Smith from NetGalley for my honest review.

There is an urban legend that every seven years a boy disappears from Camp Waukeelo. It is rumored that John Otis is the man who is responsible for the disappearance of these missing boys.

Joey Proctor, eight years old is at camp Waukeelo, when his swimming counselor, Alex Mason, makes him go on a dock in the middle of the lake and leaves him there to swim back on his own. Joey, by the way, can’t swim and is terrified of water. Alex, forgets about Joey being on the dock. Then, Joey ends up missing.

They search the woods and search the lake, but he is never found. Alex, is hiding under his lies of him leaving Joey on the dock and forgetting him.

Twenty years later, Alex is the biggest hotel and real estate developer in New York. He is married, has two children and lives in a big and beautiful home. Then things start happening to Alex. Things from the past. It can't be! Is Joey still alive? Does someone else know what happened twenty years ago and want revenge?

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heartbreaking novel about the loss of a child and the impact on the family. Survivor's guilt and the blurry details about the circumstances surrounding the drowning combine and pull the reader into the story.

It was a good story but not exactly what i was looking for. I have never read anything from this author before this book. The plot was good but could of been better.

This book was weird - I enjoyed it as a while but there were bits that just didn't work for me - the first part felt vague and just not well executed.

This was really good! i was most drawn by the cover as its really nice but the story really packed a punch! This is exactly the type of book that i usually pick up so that was nice. My only negative feedback is that i couldnt find it on Goodreads at all so it didnt count towards my 2019 goal :(

I found this book to be immensely well written about a boy who somehow disappears from a summer camp and perceived to never be heard from again. There is a boy who blames himself, yet is able to forget about the past until someone comes back to help him remember. The characters are well written and there is a great amount of suspense that keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering who is responsible for all of these atrocities. I will definitely recommend this book to others and will be looking for more books from this author. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

For me, the sections set in the past were powerful but the present day storyline was lacking and unrealistic and the ending seemed rushed. thank you for the opportunity to read.

I really wanted to love this book and I do. It's just not absolutely complete in a few ways. For one, I have to agree to all the other reviewers who even after finishing had questions lingering about the plot, the characters and even the story as a whole.

It's like a brilliant idea that's neither poetic enough nor technically well explained.

For this one reason, this book felt almost unfinished.

The best part of all this story is that it was inspired by a horrifying event in the author's childhood. I just think it could've been developed more meticulously.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes it's not what you DO that makes it wrong. But what you DON'T do.

Alex Mason, the swimming councilor at Camp Waukeelo,
prides himself on having every camper learn to swim by the end of camp. With only five days left at camp, eight year old Joey is the only the only one who hasn't learned to swim. So Alex uses his personal approach to teach hesitant kids to swim. Force them to jump in the deep end, telling them that nature will take over and they will swim.
But Joey is deathly afraid of deep water and refuses to jump. Angry, Alex throws him in only to have to save him from drowning. As punishment, Alex takes Joey from the dock to the raft and leaves him there telling him the only way back to shore is to swim. That was at 4 pm. By 8 pm, Joey is missing. After an extensive search of the woods and lake, no trace of Joey is found.

21 years later.
Alex Mason is a wealthy, successful, businessman with a beautiful wife and two daughters of his own. He wakes up one Saturday morning to find that someone has dyed the water in the pool red. But a bigger surprise is waiting on the bottom. When the pool is drained of the water, someone has chisled something into the bottom of the pool.
<b> REMEMBER ME</b>

And that is just the beginning.......
********
The Drowning by J.P. Smith is a captivating, psychological thrill ride from beginning to end, complete with a unique storyline, detailed characters, plenty of twists, and an ending that took me completely by surprise! This has KARMA written all over it! Overall a strong and highly enjoyable novel through and through!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark publishing, and J.P. Smith for my Advanced Uncoreccted Digital Copy to read and review.

An eight year old boy who can’t swim is left to fend for himself on a raft, in a lake, by his summer camp counselor. The boy is forgotten and disappears, never to be seen or heard of again. Twenty-one years later, the camp counselor, Alex Mason is a very successful real estate developer with a perfect family and a perfect house. His life is going exactly according to plan, and he rarely gave the boy from so long ago a second thought, until strange things begin happening that lead Alex to believe that perhaps assuming the boy was dead was a very big mistake.
This book took me for a pretty wild and intense ride. I felt like it jumped around a lot and was a bit jumbled here and there. While the ending was unsettling to me, I still enjoyed it. It kept me guessing and it was a pretty quick read because I was so interested to see how everything turned out. I give it 3/5 stars.

I was pulled into J. P. Smith’s “The Drowning” at the beginning. Smith began with such a vivid portrait of a boy whose story you want to follow. He does a superb job of setting his stage and putting his characters in place. He seems a master at details, which ultimately bring his world to life. The writing is finessed and almost effortless. The story is simple, too. It’s a thriller, a revenge plot, a page-turner. It has all of the elements, really.

For some reason, though, it is less-than-satisfying. In certain ways, it diverts from the natural course of thrillers. We’re introduced to this compelling main character (or so we think -- he inevitably becomes a simple prop in the plot), and we follow him the first few chapters, witnessing the event that sets the course for his disappearance, but then … he’s gone and we’re left following the douchebag who left him to die. I’m no thriller expert by any stretch, but I feel the unsavory main character is part of the problem here. Alex is a bit of a perfect loser, the kind of guy who doesn’t really exist, a patchwork of tacky and obnoxious accoutrements. He puts the fiction in the fiction narrative. He’s an incredibly successful real estate developer, and he’s also a smarmy egomaniac the paparazzi loves to follow. Um, really? I lived in NYC for two decades -- Smith’s descriptions of the setting are terrific -- but the only “famous” or “recognizable” real estate developer I know is … well, you probably know him, too, by now, and emulating him as a main character is … well, tricky. So, not realistic to the fiction for me.

Besides all that, I found myself reading to find out “who dun’ it” but what I really wanted to know was WHY. The motives are weak, essentially. The reveal comes across as a choice picked from a hat. There are several possibilities, and this one, which is revealed three-quarters in, seems the least plausible. But there are plenty of red herrings and a basket of loose ends that left me feeling cheated and unsatisfied. I wouldn’t even say I was angry about it. That would mean I’d invested in the characters. The one I’d truly cared about ghosted us near the beginning, which is probably why I felt apathy in the end.

3 1/2 ⭐️‘s

Twenty one years ago Joey disappeared from a summer camp. Alex, as his camp swimming counselor, did something he shouldn’t have. A careless act that caused a string of tragedies. An act that has now come back to haunt him in a BIG way. Someone wants revenge for that careless act. Is it Joey? Could he really be alive after all these years? Fast paced and well plotted, this book was quite good, with a perfect ending.