Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Seven books about lives lived at sea

Lisa Alther was born and grew up in Tennessee. Her novels include Kinflicks, a feminist coming-of-age chronicle. Her other books include Original Sins, Other Women, Bedrock, and a book of conversations between Alther and the painter Françoise Gilot (About Women). Alther’s books have been published in seventeen languages and have appeared on best-seller lists worldwide.

Her new novel is Swan Song.

At Lit Hub Alther tagged seven "books [that] are some of [her] favorites for the ways in which they capture both the sublime and the sinister aspects of life at sea," including:
Ruth Ware, The Woman in Cabin 10

I took a tour of the Queen Mary II and spotted so many ways to dispose of a corpse that I decided to write a murder mystery set on a cruise ship. Once I got home and read my opening chapter, I realized that murder mysteries require a skill set I lack. But if I could have written one, I’d have liked it to resemble this stylish story, set on a luxury yacht in the North Sea. A travel journalist thinks she’s heard a body being dumped overboard in the cabin next door in the middle of the night, but everyone else is convinced that she is just an hysteric.
Read about another entry on the list.

The Woman in Cabin 10  is among Jeff Somers's six best locked-room mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue