Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Two couples travel from England to Indonesia for their honeymoon. Another older couple also travel there for a silver wedding anniversary. On the last night of their stay, a drink is accidently spilt on another man who is passing behind a table of the two honeymoon couples. He is obviously drunk and not happy. A fierce storm threatens the area and later a man slips to his death in an isolated spot. One of the honeymoon couples witnesses his fall after an altercation. They do not report it to the police and return to England.
As the honeymooners settle back into their everyday lives, the reader becomes aware that all is not right. The trip to Indonesia has brought about lasting changes to their relationships. Erin is haunted by what she saw that last night in Bali. She cannot eat or sleep. Her insecurities, verging on paranoia, build tension although the reader is not really sure if her perceptions are valid. They have been told about her strange past behaviour. Her husband, Jamie, is no longer the attentive affectionate husband he previously was. He becomes violent at times and more controlling. Information concerning his ex-wife casts suspicion on this couple. Jamie owns a security company and, although their home is in an isolated part of the country, it does not have surveillance. However. Erin cannot help but think that her every move is being watched.
Sophia, whom Erin envies, is a journalist and has been fortunate to obtain a job at a small paper after losing a prestigious position in another organisation. She was responsible for an incident which left the paper in a vulnerable position. She herself had been threatened. Because she cannot pursue the previous case which resulted in the loss of her job, she becomes obsessed in following up the story about the death in Indonesia once she is aware of it. There is little time left for her new husband who would like to move out of the city for safety reasons. She is determined to stay and push herself in an attempt to get back into the newsroom where she believes she belongs. Sometimes when her husband rings her at work she does not respond saying, ‘It’s my husband. He’ll leave a message’ (290).
Mark, her husband, has become more fearful. Sophia is too busy sowing seeds about her theories and reading the reactions she perceives before jumping to her own conclusions to take his concerns too seriously. Sophia is so distracted by trying to defend her career that she doesn’t see what is happening with her husband. That is until he is the target of a hit and run incident and then what she believed about her circumstances all crashes down.
The author tells the story, over a two-month period, through the two brides, Erin and Sophia, and it soon becomes clear that each of the main characters has much to hide from their partners as well as others. The older couple who was in Bali at the same time, though not major characters, seems to have something to hide as well. On the night of the death, he was supposedly taking photos of the storm but when Sophia wishes to see the photos they have been wiped. Was he around when the death occurred? Who else was out in the weather that night? And why was an expat who now lives in Bali out in such an isolated spot where his body was found, and not at his residence out of the weather?
Just when the reader thinks they are getting a handle on each of the characters new information is revealed which turns suspicion in another direction.
This psychological thriller is said to have been the result of a nightmare. The author retains tension in the story through the use of short sharp sentences and un-nerving situations. Erin is in the isolated home on her own and the lights keep failing at odd times causing her to be on edge. ‘I hear something. My whole body freezes with fear. The windows rattle in their frames as the wind picks up outside. The storm is coming. There’s a sudden gust of icy-cold air. The house creaks in resistance. Wait, is that the sound of a car?’ (339).
This story contains many twists and turns, and it is not until the very last minute that the whole story falls into place. It is also when the significance of the wedding rings on the cover is made clear. A very interesting story by English writer Kate Gray. The Honeymoon is her first psychological thriller which was snapped up in a four-way auction by Welbeck. Kate has also written commercial women’s fiction under the name Katy Colins. Her previous six novels have been translated into several languages and been published internationally.
(2023)
by Kate Gray
Welbeck Fiction Limited
ISBN:978-1-80279-373-4
$32.99; 416pp