A Cruise Ship (or a Yacht) presents a particularly specific type of "locked-room," a sub-sub-genre of which I am inordinately fond. Out in the ocean, or somewhere at sea, where you are is all there is: unlike a home Invasion or house fire or break-in, there's no possibility of Escaping out a door or window (unless you choose to jump, and subsequently drown). This isolation can also be achieved on an island where the only connection is ferry or boat, but being at sea seems to intensify the isolation, and the danger. After all, there's always mechanical failure....or sabotage...and sometimes, a killer.

Catherine Ryan Howard packed an amazing amount of convolutions into DISTRESS SIGNALS, extra amazing because this is her debut novel. At no point did I consider any of the numerous revelations telegraphed, so I was (gratifyingly) every bit as shocked as the protagonist.

A great read and the first I’ve read by this author. Loved the storyline and the characters. A really well written book.

Adams life is finally starting to look better since his writing career is finally going somewhere and big money is expected to come in so he is on cloud 9 when his live in girlfriend, Sarah, has to take a short business trip to Barcelona. Sarah never returns and all the evidence points to her leaving him but he knows Sarah would never do that to him, would she? I thought this was a great mystery with a lot of unexpected twists.

Adam Dunne and Sarah O'Connell have been living together for almost a decade now. He is a screenwriter waiting for his 'big break'. She works in PR and supports them both. Adam has just received some good news and finally reaps some success from his writing.
When Sarah tells Adam she is flying to Barcelona for a conference, he doesn't think twice. After an initial message when she first arrives, he doesn't hear from her again. He becomes more and more concerned. Then he receives her passport in the mail. She doesn't arrive home on the scheduled day. Her parents are equally concerned about her well-being. They go to the Garda in Cork, but they are unhelpful saying that Sarah is an adult, and adults purposefully go missing everyday...
Sarah's best friend tells Adam that Sarah has been seeing someone else. Distraught, but still frantic as to Sarah's welfare, Adam does everything in his power to find her. He discovers that she was last seen on a cruise ship called the Celebrate.
Then Adam is contacted by another man whose wife also disappeared while aboard the Celebrate. Peter Brazier received his wife's passport in the mail with a note identical to the one Adam received - Peter's wife Estelle has been missing for a year now.
Adam and Peter join forces to discover what happened to the women they loved. They take a cruise upon the Celebrate...

"Corinne's face wore several more years than she had lived."
Corinne Dupont is in her early sixties. She is working as a room steward aboard the Celebrate, a cruise ship owned by Blue Wave. She has no physical stamina, but is determined to find a man whose photo she memorizes.

Romain is a little boy of eight when we first meet him. He lives with his mother, father, and two younger brothers. For some reason his Mummy doesn't seem to love him the same way she loves his two brothers. Romain cannot understand why...
One day his Mummy tells him to try to make his baby brother stop crying. He jiggles baby Mikki the way he has seen his mother do - only Romain jiggles too hard causing Mikki to have 'shaken baby syndrome'. His mother, unloving before, now becomes more cold and distant. She withdraws from Romain and for years he craves her affection.
"Even when he was trying to be good, bad things still happened."
Romain is bullied at school. When he is twelve years old, his frustrations get the better of him. When his tormentor tries to also bully his younger brother Jean, his 'darkness' takes over and he murders the bully. He is sentenced and sent away to a juvenile detention centre where he lives for five years. When he is released, his family do not want him back. Then, the day he is released, another tragic trauma befalls Romain.

MY THOUGHTS

A STRONG debut novel by a talented author! Written with three parallel narratives, the author causes the reader to wonder how on earth they could be connected in any way. Then, she cleverly ties them together in a way that you didn't see coming. What more could you ask of a debut thriller? Recommended for sure!

I started reading this book while on a family reunion camping trip. Let me just say, that wasn't a great idea because there were a lot of interruptions when I preferred to keep my nose in the book! I loved the suspense of the book as I tried to figure out what really happened to Sarah. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the characters and telling my husband the latest updates. When all was revealed, it was a surprising and satisfying story. On a side note, I, personally, would have appreciated fewer or no f words.

This book was great! Had me hooked from page one and kept twisting when I tried to guess what was going on.

DISTRESS SIGNALS is the brilliant debut thriller from Catherine Ryan Howard, a Cork-born writer. This is a murder/mystery story taking place on a cruise ship. I really enjoyed this novel and was fully immersed in the story. Keep this author on the radar!

The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads "I'm sorry--S" sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate--and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before.

Adam, a writer of screenplays for movies and Sarah, his girlfriend, who works in recruitment have lived together for about eight years. Currently Sarah was in Barcelona on work, a conference…but something was wrong…was she so busy that in two days she hadn’t contacted Adam.

Adam is frantic! Why isn’t she returning his calls or emails? Nobody will believe that something bad has happened to her as it was not in her nature to act this way. Lots of questions that need answering.

To get answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground ...

There is more than one story line to the overall plot, with many characters, but no trouble to follow. Everything comes together in the end. And the ending was a definite surprise…and not one I saw coming!

After reading this novel, I am sure that I will never be boarding a cruise ship...or at least with a more informed mindset.

I highly recommend this debut novel. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for supplying a copy of Catherine Ryan Howard's "Distress Signals".

Catherine Ryan Howard, premiers as a strong voice in fiction with her story - Distress Signals. Braiding 3 POVs from 3 characters, she weaves an intriguing narrative of mystery and suspense. Aspiring writer - Adam Dunne is on the cusp of a burgeoning career. Seeing his girlfriend off at the airport for a business trip, Adam believes all is well. Until he realizes Sarah has not kept in touch with him. Not knowing what to make of a puzzling note he receives from Sarah, some time later, he sets off to find her and get to the bottom of things. This sets the stage involving a serial murderer and whiplash-like twists in a thrilling tale. Howard generates an addictive momentum that never lets up with great writing, interesting characters and an addictive plot. Recommended.

Distress Signals is a great debut novel from an author I will be looking out for more books in the future.

Adam Dunne's girlfriend of ten years goes missing, failing to arrive back from a business trip abroad. After Sarah’ passport arrives in the post, Adam’s search leads him to a cruise ship where he discovers that another woman has disappeared a year earlier.

Distress Signals is a fast paced thriller with exciting twists that kept me guessing until the end. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing a copy of this book and this is my honest review.

DNF

Mini review:

I received this E-ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to read this. I enjoy murder mysteries and this book sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately it did not deliver. When read a murder mystery it's always important to right out an exciting beginning that way readers will read the whole book desperate for answers. Instead of this I found the beginning to be off putting. This is most likely just personal as many people have enjoyed it.

Still recommend.

A character within the novel described the situation (a.k.a. the plot) as "Gone Girl on a boat," which is somewhat accurate. The twists are comparable to Gone Girl, but Howard's writing isn't on Gillian Flynn's level. Maybe comparing it to The Woman in Cabin 10 would be a better description.

This was a DNF for me. I only read a few chapters before I gave up. The story didn't grab my attention and I didn't really connect with the characters

Not enough excitement can me seen from a computer screen but this is the best I have read in a while. CRH is one of my favorite authors. Highly recommend this who-done-it.

Brilliant. Gripped from start to finish. Couldn't tell what was going to happen. Couldn't put Kindle down either! Fantastic story - not sure I fancy going on a cruise anytime soon though!

I am sending out a distress signal of my own-this book grabbed me and wouldn't let go so I lost some much needed sleep. If you like tight, well written psychological thrillers and mysteries you'll love this debut novel. It involves Sarah and Adam and their relationship both past and present,cruise ship disappearances and maritime law with a couple subplots dating past to the past. Very easy to read, good plot line, great character depiction and like a big jigsaw puzzle you really don't know what to expect until the last piece fits in and it does perfectly!

This is the second cruise ship mystery I have read lately and I am hooked! The whole idea of international waters and the guiding laws make a perfect hunting and killing ground for a serial killer or for the opportunity killer. I enjoyed the flashback to Romain's childhood, tying it to the future and circumstances that unfold. The characters are interesting and create well told story. I will recommend Distress Signals to all of my friends who are heading out on a cruise or in need of a good vacation read.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to the read Distress Signals for a fair review.

Entertaining and engaging mystery about a woman who goes off on a business trip and never comes home.

Adam and Sarah have been together for 10 years, living together for the last 8 -- he's trying to break into film-writing and she works at a PR firm -- everything is good between them. So, when Sarah says she is going to Barcelona for a work conference, Adam is fine with it -- until Sarah stops answering her phone and returning his messages. When she doesn't show up back home on time, he and her parents go crazy trying to find her. It happens that Sarah was keeping some secrets from Adam and those send him on a desperate hunt to figure out what happened. The story involves him taking an impromptu search mission on a cruise liner with another man whose wife disappeared under similar circumstances. The two men get no help from police in their investigation. The setup involves the quirky maritime laws and crime jurisdiction, which was interesting and added a great dimension to the story.

I enjoyed the plot and the surprises along the way. The characters were quite well drawn and believable. (Not sure that the whole Romain story was necessary, however) and author could have tightened the narrative and it holds up without that part. I'll look for other books by this author in the future.

Link to Goodreads review

Adam's longtime girlfriend leaves the country for a business seminar but never returns. Days later he received her passport and a note saying I'm sorry.

He becomes convinced that Sarah is in trouble and would have never voluntarily left him.

When he follow the trail of clues it leads him to a cruise ship and a man who also lost his wife on the same ship a year ago. Thinking there's some serial killer on the loose they work together to find out the truth.

Full of twists and turns you will never see coming. I could not put this down! Ps. You will never catch me on a cruise ship after reading this!
5⭐️’s

This book grabs you in right from the prologue. Lots of suspense and mystery from the beginning to the end. Couldn't put the book down.

Adam and Sarah have been together for ten years and seem happy together. Adam has finally sold his script to a Hollywood production company and he can finally help out financially. Then Sarah heads to Barcelona for a work conference and Adam doesn't hear from her. He realizes that there are things he doesn’t know about his girlfriend and there are tons of questions that needs to be answered.

I highly recommend this book to all. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for supplying a copy of Catherine Ryan Howard's "Distress Signals" in exchange for a honest review.