Based on a mere extract only. A prologue and a couple of chapters.

I would never dream of reading a book; or buying it to read based on just the two opening chapters.
Yet by reading this sampler I am doing that and encouraging you to do likewise.

My reasoning is clear and holds up to any emotive challenge as it is not based on either this author’s previous work or the written narrative here.
My interest in the book began simply with the introduction on how the story came to him and the plot lines developed.

I suppose I am part of the generation that grew up with the sixties classic The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Also the drama and fallout over the Mutiny on the Bounty, a film from the early sixties.
School taught of great sea adventures rounding the Capes and great voyages of discovery from Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook, Vasco da Gama and Francis Drake.
The author here, in an unscheduled moment came across the story of the wreckage of a merchant vessel on a tiny coral island. This is what triggered the process of writing this novel. He outlines the ingredients which lent themselves to make a working novel, what to include and I was intrigued and hooked.

Two chapters is barely sufficient to gain an inkling to a book short of the writing style and perhaps a shocking opening that demands more reading. Here we have the laying down of characters as you would expect.

The hook if you see it as such is the strange incident at the harbour prior to departure. Seven similar boats lie at anchor. The one we are interested in is the one that those we meet are booked to sail upon which is destined for Amsterdam. This very vessel is highlighted by means of a cruse pronounced by a mute leper, who in effect condemns all who sail on her and prophesies that she will not reach her designated port.

Now if I was at Heathrow and someone announced that my Virgin Atlantic flight to New York was going down into the cold North Sea, I’d feel a little put off any in-flight meal. Well readers rejoice we get to follow an eight month voyage that appears doomed like a slow-mo Titanic without Kate Winslet.

Stuart Turton has in the manifest a Holmes/Watson type crime team so all may not be lost for the crew and passengers but I for one would not embark. Happily I can share the horror and evil from my armchair where my escapism is pain free. This is what makes reading such a joy and why I am keen to read The Devil and the Dark Water.