A Stranger On Board by Cameron Ward
Publish Date: 23 June 2022
NO SPOILERS

WOW! I loved this book.
I so enjoyed this thriller/murder set on board a superyacht heading for Antigua. The character I had respect for was the protagonist, ex marine Sarah French. a feisty, independent and damaged lady. I enjoyed Ward's writing style, quick dialogue and funny in times of danger. I enjoyed my adventure on the high seas with Sarah and the crew.

I would definitely recommend this book, a bit far fetched in parts, but it was like a Bond movie, you take it as it comes and enjoy!

I give a 5 star rating

I WANT TO THANK NETGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED COPY OF THIS BOOK FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

Sarah, ex royal marines is engaged as security consultant on board a luxury yacht 9n a transatlantic voyage. On board are a skeleton crew, two VIPs and some priceless works of art.

After a traumatic event on the frontline which caused Sarah to quit the marines, this easy job seems like just the ticket to get her stress under control and get her life back on track.

The reality however is so much different than expected with Sarah having to uncover wjhat exactly is going on amongst some of the crew members. Just who can be trusted and will Sarah be able to overcome her fears and save the ship. Gripping throughout and well worth reading.

Sarah was an amazing and strong character but i found this book a slow burner. It was hard to get hooked into.
The writing of the book was great in the sense that you pictured what the yacht was like.

I found this exciting and fast paced. It really kept you in suspense as to who was responsible for all the things going so drastically wrong on board. It was a book which would film well, and I did like the central character. My only quibble was why her ex lover had to be called Kay. In the UK this is a woman's name, not a name for a male Royal Marine.

Travelling to the Caribbean on a luxury yacht as security seems like and easy option to an ex-marine. But it isn't long before problems start to arise, ratcheting up the tension until it is very clear this is not going to be a comfortable mission. This is a nail biting novel that kept me hooked well into the early hours

A really good book that kept me guessing & reading all day & night to finish it to see what would happen!

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A luxury superyacht. And a killer picking you off, one by one... Wow!!! Wow!!!! Wow!!! This book is a total page turner and will keep you guessing with every page. Halfway through I thought I had it figured out and then BAM! The ending floored me...

I really enjoyed this. I am a big fan of murder mysteries with a twist so this one appealed from the get go! Different, a woman clearly suffering with PTSD from a life event we slowly unravel as the book goes on, addicted to sleeping tablets and working with a crew she's never met before. She's the insurance, but insurance for what? I loved that this kept me up way past bed time - had an array of fun (and shifty!) characters and really kept me guessing throughout, sometimes to the point where I wondered if our unreliable key character was a bit bonkers from her meds. five stars from me, whizzed through it, and would love to read more by Cameron ward

Loved the setting of this book and always fancied being a yachtie myself so I was thrilled to get the chance to read this book and it did not disappoint.

It felt a bit slow-paced in parts but I still I read on with all the things going wrong I just had to know how it ended it was tense in parts with nowhere to go when things were getting pretty rough and not just the waves.

But I am glad I stuck to it and I felt a lot of effort was put into this and I did overly enjoy it would be a great summer read for sure.

Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

This was a lot of fun to read - it's unique! Sarah, an ex-Royal Marine, is requested to serve as security aboard a £200 million boat for 'insurance considerations.' Things start to go awry soon after the ship sets sail, and the ship sets sail with a slew of maintenance concerns. However, it quickly becomes clear that there is more going on here, as members of the team begin to vanish. Sarah has her work cut out for her, since everyone on the team seems to have their own secrets and agendas.

When I first started reading this, I wasn't interested in many of the characters; they aren't really appealing. But as time passed, I became increasingly curious. The conclusion was fantastic.

3.5 Stars
When Sarah is offered security job on board a luxury super yacht after leaving the marines she believes that it's the perfect place to start over. However, as more incidents occur on the yacht they cannot be explained by bad luck; is there someone on board that doesn't want it to reach its destination and will all the crew make it ...alive?

This was a very fast paced thriller; I liked the setting on the yacht as this created a highspeed but confined almost claustrophobic atmosphere where almost anyone could be a suspect and have an ulterior motive; a gripping and action packed thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

A crime thriller set on a super yacht in the middle of an Atlantic crossing. A former Royal Marine is employed as a security advisor on the vessel Escape when things start to go wrong, the Captain goes missing, the power fails. I failed to connect with the main character who I felt was badly written. An enjoyable read but I wanted more from the story.

What a tense, breath-taking read! Sarah, a former marine, thinks she's helping out a friend, acting as security on a superyacht delivery to Antigua for a mystery multi- millionaire. Planning some quiet thinking time, recovering from her trauma, little does she know the simmering resentment and dark plotting that exists within the crew. Wary of them at first, she gradually lets her guard down, only to find a series of horrifying accidents and bad luck befalling the boat. Is the boat cursed or is there foul play afoot? She is determined to find out with fatal consequences. Amazing.

Mysteries set on ships are an interesting variation of the ‘closed room’ murder mystery, so I picked up Cameron Ward’s novel A Stranger on Board with much anticipation. The protagonist of this novel is Sarah, a former Navy marine who has signed up as security on a superyacht. Fairly quickly, two things become clear: Sarah suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and one of her fellow passengers harbours evil intentions. The combination of these two things can only lead to a literary portrayal of uneasiness, claustrophobia and paranoia, and this is exactly what we get over the pages of the book. It is to Ward’s credit that even with a large cast of characters depicted, his novel is well-plotted and easy to read. The one aspect that I found did not work so well, however, was making Sarah a first-person narrator. Unreliable and unlikeable first-person narrators must be supremely hard to write, and in this novel, Sarah’s repetitive thoughts and conversations jar a little and contribute to making the novel longer than it needs to be. Nevertheless, I hope this unusual and contemporary ‘locked room’ mystery will attract many readers, and I am interested to see what Ward will write next. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

Loved the idea behind this book but in reality it didn't quite fulfill my expectation levels.
A decent enough, if not spectacular read in my opinion it merits a middle of the road 3 stars as it was sufficently entertaining to hold my attention all the way through to it's conclusion

Ex-marine Sarah French joins a luxury super yacht as on-board security, excited to get her life and career back on track. However tensions in the crew soon surface, and then someone goes missing... someone on board is a killer and Sarah must uncover them before anyone else gets hurt... A thrilling story in an interesting setting. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

I loved the premise of the story- a murder (or more) on board a super high-end luxury liner far out to sea is right up my street in terms of locked room mysteries, but unfortunately I didn't really become that engaged with A Stranger On Board and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would have. There is quite a bit of repetition in the story, possibly to make the plot longer, but it is frustrating to read, and didn't really strengthen the plotline.

The plot is that ex-military worker Sarah is hired to provide protection on the yacht as it is sailed across the world to its next destination; there is a skeleton crew on board, and Sarah is not expected to have to do much, but rather to be there as an insurance requirement. The crew are an international set, with romances and dislikes sprouting amongst them. The scene is set for an average crossing, but of course, we know from the beginning of the book that all is not as it seems, and the vessel is not going to reach its final destination in one piece.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Escapism on a yacht. Ex marine Sarah is asked to be the security guard on a luxury super yacht and you would think it would be an easy gig. Not so much. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This is claustrophobic and the perfect setting for a thriller. I did feel sea sick at some points!

Loved every page of this one! Was hooked from the start! Loved the all important female lead cast above the boat! Loved the why the writer had written, look forward to more from this author.

Loved this book. Afloat on the ocean at the mercy of a killer onboard. You have nowhere to go! Good book with characters you can believe it. Well worth a read and this author is one to watch.