about Ruth Ware
My honest opinion? Yes, this psychological thriller is absolutely worth the hype, especially if you appreciate a classic murder mystery trapped in a tight, dangerous environment. The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016) succeeds by isolating its protagonist, much like a modern Agatha Christie novel a comparison Ware’s writing style is often compared to. Ware’s novels expertly feature this plot device, forcing usually ordinary women to find themselves in dangerous situations involving a crime. Reading it felt like being a detective with a faulty memory, as the heroine, Lo Blacklock, is trapped and restricted on a luxury cruise ship after witnessing what she thinks is a body thrown overboard. The Reviews of Ware’s psychological crime thrillers have been generally positive, with The Independent describing The Lying Game (2017) as “gripping enough to be devoured in a single sitting,” and The Guardian praising In A Dark, Dark Wood (2015) for its “excellent characterisation” and “mesmerising” ending, demonstrating her skill in this genre.
PLOT of the woman in cabin 10
The core premise of Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 is what sets it up as a compelling thriller right from chapter one. The story is told, mostly, from the first-person point of view of travel journalist, Lo Blacklock, who’s quickly, and cleverly set up to seem like an unreliable narrator. We join Lo as she prepares for the assignment of a lifetime: a week on the small, luxury cruise ship, the Aurora, sailing 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, like owner and adventurous billionaire, Richard Bullmer, and his wife, Anne, the Lyngstad heiress.
However, Lo is already showing cracks. Her flat was burgled while she’s at home just before the trip, leaving her severely sleep deprived and panicking about the break-in a fatal mistake she mentions involves googling how many criminals return to break-ins and she really needed to stop drinking mid-week. She starts novel admitting to this struggle. Ignoring research she’s meant doing, she neglects her work and only fills cracks with booze, a lot of booze. We know the story’s being told by a narrator who drinks too much and is on medication she doesn’t want talk about, so right away we’re suspicious of her, and what she notices.
A Murder That Never Was?
This sets the stage perfectly for the central mystery: The Woman in Cabin 10. When she wakes up first night, vaguely thinking something must woken her, later thinks it might been a scream. She hears a splash, “The kind splash made by body hitting water,” and looking out her veranda, thinks she sees something in the water. She then sees a mark on the safety glass of the cabin next door (number ten) which could blood. It’s late, dark, she’s only just woken up, and she’s had a lot drink. We’re not sure either if she actually witnessed a woman thrown overboard or if it was a dark, terrifying nightmare.
Lo, shaken and hungover, immediately reports it to the ship’s security, Nilsson. He watched me with something sympathetic his eyes, and It sympathy stung more than anything else. Nilsson takes Lo cabin next door and it’s empty. Completely empty. No cases, no clothes, no sign life. The woman in cabin ten’s whereabouts may unknown, but there definitely spoilers as half mystery is working out if actually murder. This is the classic gaslighting moment of the book: Which might been enough make Lo doubt what she thought she heard, except she hadn’t spoken to a woman in that cabin day before and She borrowed her mascara. Was it really possible she dead? Lo finds the alternative not much better: suddenly I wasn’t sure it better worse, I going mad.
The Investigation and the Suspects
Lo is thrust into a murder investigation no one else believes there was murder. This is where Ruth Ware’s masterclass in suspense begins. She might stopped believing it herself if her one piece evidence, the mascara, wasn’t stolen her, and if someone hadn’t left her message stop digging. Her camera photo woman cabin ten wasn’t deliberately broken either. She now has a handful of suspects:
- Richard Bullmer: Owner luxury cruise ship, a Richard Branson sort, whose billions all come his wife, Anne, who is described as a recluse, hairless and gaunt after four years chemo radiotherapy.
- Cole Lederer: A photographer he’s only seen point-and-click camera but He came onto ship notably large case photo equipment, supposedly.
- Chloe Jenssen: A model who transform herself make-up using Contouring. Chloe said she could turn you anyone Kim Kardashian Natalie Portman with what I’ve got my cabin.
- Ben Howard: Lo’s journalist ex-boyfriend, who says he believes her, But also doesn’t give her all facts his own alibi.
The book succeeds because Ruth Ware found another way make murder-mystery feel fresh, despite being compared to the works Agatha Christie. Lo is a flawed character she bumbles and She reveals too much wrong people. She can’t hold onto evidence save her life. She’s no Poirot.
The Big Twist
The book uses a clever technique by including epistolary inserts between sections novel, jumping forward time show emails Lo’s boyfriend who hasn’t heard her, then worried threads Facebook, then news reports. These glimpses future ingenious, like the snippet: “BBC news, Monday 28 September, Missing Briton Laura Blacklock: Body Found by Danish Fishermen, Danish fishermen dredging North Sea coast Norway found body woman.” This audience-baiting makes knowledge someone definitely dies injects tension suspense every scene comes after.
The truth, however, is a classic closed room murder-mysteries scheme. Lady Anne Bullmer had been replaced by Carrie, Richard’s mistress, a woman from cabin ten who looks just like her similar features and painfully thin physique especially After she took it off eyebrows all (a trick Chloe Jenssen showed us transform herself make-up). Richard asked Carrie sometimes dress his wife for public appearances; the boat trip was the longest time Carrie posed Anne. Anne fell (according Richard), and he brought Carrie her body battered covered blood bundled suitcase and asked her dispose it while he established his alibi.
The whole premise is that Lo sees what I saw, and she’s firm her conviction what she saw real, so she keeps digging. When Lo unexpectedly sees woman cabin ten again, she runs straight trap, Locked room near engine, but this time she knows something must going and she needs silenced. She realises if woman cabin ten alive, someone else must not be. Ultimately, Carrie realised too late wasn’t yet body when she saw Anne fall, and she finally understands her abusive man she loves isn’t bad, really is the real villain piece. Helping Lo escape ship, Carrie finally confront Richard and kill him. Lo gets home safe and finds out later news Richard Bullmer found dead what’s believed suicide. The gunshot wound killed Bullmer homicide, but we know exactly who killed him. The story made more realistic by choosing Lo protagonist instead Carrie. It makes sense her story would end quietly.
It’s clear why The Woman in Cabin 10 is recommended reading for anyone trying write mystery, suspense, or unreliable narrators. As a reader, I found Ruth Ware does not just write something completely surprises your readers but also feels inevitable, like there’s no other satisfactory way things could have ended.
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