Bad Tourists

May 20, 2024
Carver (A Haunting in the Arctic, as C.J. Cooke) delivers an engrossing if uneven destination thriller about three friends whose vacation goes sideways when a past tragedy rears its head. Darcy Levitt has splurged on a nine-day holiday with her best friends, Pilates instructor Camilla and ghostwriter Kate, at the luxurious Sapphire Island Resort in the Maldives. Ostensibly there to celebrate Darcy’s divorce from her tech mogul husband, Jacob, the 40-somethings also share a connection to a grisly murder spree that took place in Dover, England, 22 years earlier. When one of the resort’s guests turns up dead, the friends fear that history may be repeating itself. Flashbacks reveal how each woman was involved in the Dover massacre, and as the trio’s vacation turns into a sprint for survival, Carver cannily drops in clues as to their true natures, occasionally dipping into the viewpoints of Darcy’s husband and a honeymooning fellow guest for additional context. It all works like magic until the book’s final quarter, when Carver rushes to tie up too many loose ends. Still, readers will have fun predicting how the pieces of this puzzle fit together. Agent: Ariele Fredman, UTA.