The Book:
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Published July 19, 2016 by Scout Press
The Woman in Cabin 10 spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Lo Blacklock
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The Woman in Cabin 10 Spoilers
The Reveal:
On Lo’s first night at sea, she hears what she believes to be a woman being thrown overboard from the cabin next to hers. When she reports it, however, the crew claims everyone is accounted for and insists she must have just been imagining things.
Despite this, Lo does not believe them and continues to investigate on her own. She realizes she has the girl’s mascara—having met her briefly the first night there—but leaves it in her cabin, where it is then stolen.
When Lo gets too close to the truth, she is lured to the basement and locked in the bottom of the ship. Alone with her thoughts, she starts to grasp what is truly happening. This is when we finally get some answers: the girl Lo met was real, and now she’s keeping Lo prisoner. Her name is Carrie, and she had been having an affair with Lord Bullmer, the owner of the boat. She believed they were in love and was just waiting for Anne to die (of cancer) before she could be with Lord Bullmer in public.
However, Anne was taking too long to pass away. Lord Bullmer had her thrown off the ship in international waters, and Carrie was impersonating her (using makeup and large clothes) to prevent the guests from suspecting anything.
Lo’s family was told that she died at sea, but Lo hadn’t given up yet. She kept working to win Carrie over. Eventually, Carrie agrees that Lord Bullmer is evil, and together they devise a plan to escape. I can’t remember the specifics, but I know they switch places. Lo manages to escape, but Carrie is injured and left behind. Lo jumps off the boat and tries to swim to shore before she is rescued.
The Ending:
Once Lo is home, she learns that Lord Bullmer has died and that Anne’s body has been found. Bullmer’s death is believed to be suicide, but Lo knows that Carrie killed him and got away. Carrie wired some money to Lo anonymously after the fact.
I hope these The Woman in Cabin 10 spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
A classic, just as entertaining on the re-read. I definitely would see a lot more coming had I read this one for the first time these days, but there were many details I couldn’t remember even from the first time around.
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