Remember those great disaster movies from the 1970s? Films like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake. Full of wonderfully cheesey special effects before Hollywood discovered the humdrum virtual reality of CGI. Chris Coppel has all these tropes and more in Liner.
Add in the scare tactics used by the emerging sci-fi filmmakers of the 1950s, scenes as horrific as anything ever written by James Herbert or Stephen King, and all the classic inventiveness of John Wyndham and H.G. Wells and you have one hell of a story.
I particularly liked the easy banter between the love interest couple. This novel is an absolute cracker.

Thank you for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

A really interesting story, give it a go.

Really enjoyed this story. Easily got into the book and would love to read more from the author. Did seem to drag a bit from a good start. Sorry. Thank you for the opportunity to see an advance copy.

Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. The word building was phenomenal in this book. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author.

I love ocean liners and the paranormal. Liner by Chris Coppel blends both perfectly.

David Easton is tired of his life and books passage on the Oceanis planning on committing suicide mid-way through the voyage. He didn't plan on meeting Diana. Instead of planning to die, now he and Diana must try to save the passengers and the liner from the supernatural.

Great book! It's reads similar to the Titanic movie with the paranormal thrown in. I couldn't put this down! One of my favorite books of 2021.

this book was absolutely incredible. I was unsure going into it whether it would be my sort of thing but i absolutely loved and devoured it. The perfect mix of sci-fi and i shall be forcing all my friends that love sci-fi and fantasy to read this. so incredible.

An extremely interesting book. The story will grab and hold your attention. I found the plot to be exceptional and the characters were well done. I could not put it down. Definitely a book meant to be read in one reading.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A great thriller in an unusual setting sees the protagonist’s life turn quickly around. The story is a strong mystery/thriller but it was the writing style which captured my attention. Great descriptive language and fantastic dialogue made for an immersive reading experience,

Packed With Atmosphere,,,.
What exactly is happening on the great cruiser Oceanis? Packed with atmospherics, suspense and with twists and turns along the way, this is a gripping paranormal tale to give the reader chills with a well drawn setting and a credible cast of characters.

It’s quite sad at the start as the main character doesn’t want to carry on with his life and plans to end it all in style. Then he meets someone then it gets weird. Interesting and well written but not sure that it’s for me. Did read it all so it did keep me hooked.

Liner was one of the first ocean liner books I've read and I am definately looking for more! Weirdly, even though I know nothing of boats or even science really, this book was easy to follow and kept me interested. I loved the quick romance between David and Diana and it never felt forced or quick at all. I wish the ending had more of an explanation or I just haven't understood it yet. I will definately check out more by this author. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced reader's copy.

This is my third read by the author. I actually really enjoy his writing, more and more the more I read him, but this one, like the first one I read by him, did leave something to be desired. Which is to say…it’s hugely entertaining and creepy and atmospheric and well done on so many accounts as it speeds along, but then you finish and look back and kind go…oh, is that it? that’s the resolution? Well, that’s kinda…bathetic, anticlimactic, underwhelming.
To be fair, while reading the book, I’d no idea who Coppel was going to finish the story, that was a major attractor, in fact. This awesome premise of a luxury cruise ship in 1962 on a trip that goes suddenly and horribly wrong and then proceeds to go wronger still and then…just kind of ends.
On this ship there is a passenger who’d had it with life, his name is David and he has decided to kill himself and do so in style. To that end he takes all the money he has left and buys himself a cruise ship ticket, a portentous choice, since David has had a childhood fear of water for years. And yet, things don’t quite go to plan, he meets a spirited young woman who changes his mind with her wily feminine charms and, conveniently enough, has a father who has the power to change David’s life back to good, back to before a traumatic divorce took it all away from him. All good, right? Wrong, because something terrible has been happening to the ship’s occupants. And no, it didn’t come from the buffet. It came from (best mr. moviephone impression) the sea.
Going green has long had positive connotation in the modern vernacular. Well, Chris Coppel is off to change that. Because people on this ship are going green in the most terrifying ways. So are things, too. It’s like the sea is claiming them for itself, all at once. And just like Kermit says, it ain’t easy being green. In fact, it’s lethal. And so, cut off by an impenetrable fog and face with a terrifying watery unknown, David and his newfound ladylove must make their final stand.
Not quite Titanic, but then again, it isn’t meant to be. It still does its best to discourage one from the luxury cruising in high seas. After all, as the book so cleverly mentions, all that luxury is ever meant to do is to distract one from their terrifying reality of being trapped in a metal container in the middle of nowhere at mercy of the potentially merciless waters around them.
So, yeah, fun all around. And much fun was had reading this book. Coppel did a great job of recreating 1962 mood and mien with his two leads acting out an old movie style romance at high seas, though bygone cinematic romances never quite went that dark…or that green, for that matter. Plenty entertaining, no matter the ending. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Interesting book, classed as a mild horror with twists. Need a little bit of imagination as it pushes credibility a little but overall a good page turner

I received this book from Matador via Netgalley for a review. A really good book what I would class as mild horror with a good twist. Dave Easton has lost everything and takes a one way trip on the liner, then things start happening. Could not stop reading. Highly recommended.

Fun story. Stretches credibility but kept me turning the pages. Hope future stories contain more detail.

REVIEW ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liner by Chris Coppel is the story of David Easton, a man whose life is in ruins. He books one-way passage on the luxury ship Oceania from which he intends to leap and end once and for all his lonely and painful life. But before he can go through with it, he meets Diana and suddenly things are not so bleak. Could he find in her something to live for? Strange and unexplainable things begin to occur on aboard Oceania, and David and Diana together must race against the clock to uncover what is truly going on in order to save the great liner and its passengers. ⠀
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I found Liner to be an intriguing and suspenseful thriller crafted by a master storyteller. It is one of those rare books that you can find yourself immersed in and the rest of the world temporarily vanishes. The central characters are dynamic, relatable and genuine and put me a mind of Jack and Rose in Titanic. Their dialogue crisp and often full of sardonic wit. It is a story that grips the readers imagination and pulls them breathlessly to a grand climax. If this is an example of Chris Coppel’s quality of writing I most assuredly plan to dive into his catalog of work. ⠀

Started off promising with a fun relationship developed by a couple of passengers, but quickly devolved into weirdness as passengers and crew start dying. Weak resolution to the events, and the attempt to tie it to the present just didn’t work for me.