When an heiress disappears from her superyacht and security footage shows her getting pushed, the main suspect has to prove her innocence in this thrilling mystery at sea told in reverse chronological order, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Genuine Fraud.

It was supposed to be the best-ever girls’ trip: five days, four friends, one luxury yacht, no parents. But on the final night, as the yacht cruised the deep and dark waters between Florida and Grand Cayman, eighteen-year-old heiress Giselle vanished. She’s nowhere to be found the next morning even after a frantic search, until security footage surfaces . . . showing Maggie pushing her overboard.

But Maggie has no memory of what happened. All she knows is that she woke up with a throbbing headache, thousands of dollars in cash in her safe, a passport that isn’t hers, and Giselle’s diary. And while Maggie had her own reasons to want Giselle dead, so did everyone else on board: jealous Viv, calculating Emi, even some members of the staff.

What really went down on the top deck that night? Maggie will have to work her way backward to uncover the secrets that everyone—even Giselle—kept below deck or she’s dead in the water.

Jan Gangsei crafts a compulsively readable tale of privilege, family, and identity wrapped in a wholly original mystery that will keep readers on the edges of their seats until the final twist.

Dead Below Deck, Jan Gangsei
Pub Day: 19 November 2024

We open after a murder has taken place. Maggie stares at her hands, desperately trying to remember the night before, questioning if she had what it takes to push someone to their death.

I was instantly drawn into Dead Below Deck. Jan Gangsei presents the story anachronistically, telling Maggie’s story backwards and Giselle’s story forwards (by way of journal entries), while also peppering in some current timeline tidbits like news stories and police interviews.

It was a great way to show us the whole story.

Telling Maggie’s story backward worked well, I was constantly highlighting and wondering what would come up next that would help to explain what felt like crytpic sentences.

Giselle’s story, however, didn’t work as well. It was presented as a journal in which Giselle wrote letters to her dead mom. But the voice of it doesn’t feel like a journal entry as much as it does narration. I think it could have worked to get the story out without the guise of that format.

Emi and Viv, the two other main players in the story and Giselle’s best friends also work really well as suspects as we get to know Maggie better and realize she most likely did not kill Giselle.

SPOILER WARNING! HIGHLIGHT TO SEE IT!

My biggest gripe was the ending. Giselle planned the whole thing and framed Maggie because she thought Maggie was seeing her secret ex-boyfriend Wyatt. Which seemed unecessarily petty to me.

We also learn, from Maggie realizing it and Giselle confirming it in their ending conversation, that Giselle’s little brother is actually her son. This felt like it was added for shock value and I think we really needed to see her interact with him more for it to have any real value to the narrative.

So, while the ending wasn’t great, the rest of the book definitely kept me on my toes and switching sides.