Full marks to Cameron Ward for giving us a female lead who can mix it with the best, spoiled only by hobbling the ex-Royal Marine with a host of weaknesses that detracted and distracted somewhat. However, for readers looking for an action thriller set on a boat adrift in the middle of the Atlantic they will find something that appeals in ‘Stranger on Board’. The action sequences are particularly well described and as credible as you will typically find in this genre. As noted above, whilst PTSD is a terrible scourge affecting former servicemen and women, a little less angst about our hero’s problems from her service in Afghanistan and a little less distraction from a never quite realised flirtation on board would have improved the narrative. All in all, though, this is a book that was hard to put down as the violent denouement approached. Recommended.

Sarah is struggling with past events that led her to leave the marines, so when her friend and ex-marine Mitch offers her an easy post as security officer on board a super yacht as part of a relocation she agrees. After all, it's just for insurance purposes, there are no guests and it'll give her time to sort out her head...won't it?

Quickly things start to go wrong, they leave in a hurry with the engineer not happy with the ship or the captain's decisions, the bosun has been fired prior to sail and why is the man in charge of the owners assets so keen to leave anyway? Then a crew member goes missing...tragic accident or something more sinister?

This book is terrific! My absolute favourite film is Die Hard and I felt there were a few nods to it? It's fast paced, well written, the characters are likeable (or not!) and I devoured it in days. I'd never heard of this author before but I will definitely be keeping an eye on them now. So...can we make this book into a film now please?

#netgalley #cameronward #astrangeronboard

Also posted to Goodreads - cannot link account.

I felt this book started off well but kind of dipped about a third of the way in and didn’t pick up for me really until the end which was action packed then. I found i had worked out who the baddie was quite early on and I never really took to Sarah or the story behind her and Kay. I would read books by this author again as I did really enjoy the action at the end. Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the early copy of this book.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A luxury superyacht. And a killer picking you off, one by one...
When ex-marine Sarah French joins a luxury superyacht as on-board security, she's excited to get her life - and career - back on track.
Surrounded by crystal waters, it seems like the perfect place to start over.
As they head into open water, though, tensions between the crew quickly build. And when someone goes missing, Sarah has a terrifying realisation.
One of them is a killer. All of them are suspects.
To protect the other passengers, Sarah needs to uncover the killer's identity, and return the boat safely to shore.
But there's a storm on the horizon - and not all of them will make it out alive...

This is a thrilling read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

🌟An engaging, entertaining thriller!
🌟It took me by surprise after a somewhat slow start, why is a 4 not a 5🌟 read for me! But when the action arrived boy you better hold on because it doesn't let up again until the end.
🌟Sarah is a tortured heroine who you can't help but root for... Who can she trust? What's going on? Will anyone get off alive?
🌟Cleverly written with all the breadcrumbs there for you to solve the mystery. I did but I didn't mind at all on this occasion clearly all reading all that Agatha Christie lately has paid off 😉

📖 Read this is you loved The Castaways by Lucy Clarke or Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see what Ward brings out next!

A fast paced thriller and I could see this working on the screen, but it's obvious to the reader who is behind everything going wrong on the luxury Yacht, Escape, even though we don't know why. Although that doesn't really take much working out. Plenty action, but not so much intrigue. A good enough read. #netgalley #astrangeronboard

This was a book which built up the suspense and kept you reading. It was very exciting and I throughly enjoyed it. It made a change from my usual reads so I enjoyed it much more. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Sarah French an ex-Royal Marine, has suffered a traumatic experience and left the service. A friend of hers gives her a security job on board a superyacht that is being moved with a skeleton crew from Europe to the Caribibean. Sarah wonders if she can use this time to get her head straight and perhaps catch the sun.

Then things start to go wrong. There is an unexpected guest, who insists on traveling with them. The captain wants to get to the destination quickly but there are problems with the engines, plus there’s a storm bearing down on them. The drinking water is sabotaged then the engines, and the captain goes missing.

Sarah is called on to deal with the situations and put her Royal Marine training into use, but can she trust the crew after all the disasters that are befalling them?

It was an interesting book, though took it's time going as we got to know the characters on board the yacht. The action was good at the end as we discovered why things were going wrong.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book for me starts slowly and I struggled to get into it and found it to be a bit boring. However, about a third of the way in it got more exciting and in depth. The characters came alive a bit more despite some deaths!
Overall not a bad book to read and I would read books by this author again.

Ex-marine Sarah French is looking to get her life back on track following her discharge from the Navy. Still suffering panic attacks from PTSD, a job as security detail on a luxury yacht seems like the perfect solution. She makes a quick friend in Lily, a young woman who works onboard as a steward, & feels a frisson of attraction to one of the deckhands, Arno. When the niece of the owner makes a sudden appearance & decides to join the trip it throws off the whole atmosphere, added to this is the fact that the yacht refit is only half-finished, the sole engineer has a drinking problem, & Sarah overhears several arguments which hint at trouble below the surface.

When strange 'accidents' start happening like the fresh water tanks being emptied, Sarah begins to wonder if this trip is all it seems. Several days into the journey, the yacht is struck by lightning in a storm, disabling all their systems & Captain Greg disappears. They are all left drifting aimlessly with no communications & running out of food & fresh water, but even worse, Sarah realises that there may be a killer on board.

I do enjoy these 'locked room' type thrillers & this one started off well, I found Sarah French to be an intriguing character as one of the first female Royal Marines. I thought the tension was nicely tautened by the claustrophobic atmosphere & simmering mistrust between the crew. I should, however, have guessed what was on the way when one of the other ship's names made me go "Hey, Die Hard reference" at the start. Indeed, towards the end Sarah goes full 'John McClane' to root out the killer. It was an entertaining read, never dull, but at times Sarah didn't fully convince as a female character & the 'bad guys' were a little too obvious. I would definitely read another one of the author's books though as occasionally you need a book that's all about the action. 3.5 stars (rounded down on sites where half stars not allowed).

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Michael Joseph UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I am really disappointed that this didn't deliver the thrills or excitement I was expecting but rather it was a slow burn that seemed to drag on and had me skipping large chunks to get to the action.

The premise is great; a different take on the locked-room genre where here we have a luxury superyacht needing to be delivered across the Atlantic but not long into the voyage, things start to go seriously wrong and then people start to disappear.

The characters are an interesting and eclectic bunch who are well developed and whilst some of them are not particularly likeable, they all have their place within the story.

My main problem with this book is that it promises so much but doesn't really deliver for the majority of it. This is a book of thirds with the final third being where most of the action takes place with the first two thirds were, I presume, written to create tension and suspense but they ended up being rather boring for me.

Overall, I think this will work for people who like a book that doesn't jump up and hit you in the face but rather one that talks about it and threatens to do so without ever actually doing it!

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read A Stranger on Board and to share my thoughts.

This book is one of those that after finishing, it took me a while to work out how I felt about it. Which means - perhaps to your relief - that I haven't had time to think of a preamble for this review, so I'm just going to have to jump right in there.

First things first: I loved the main character, Sarah French. She's an ex-Royal Marine, which means that there isn't much she hasn't seen or had to face. But she's suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder and also can't, or perhaps won't stop blaming herself for the death of her partner in action. The panic attacks come without warning and are crippling. She's splendidly portrayed: tough and vulnerable at the same time, and I both admired her and felt for her.

I wasn't quite so sure about the plot. The most luxurious and super of all superyachts is about to set sail on its maiden 3000-mile voyage from Majorca to Antigua, with just a skeleton crew on board. It should have been an easy journey, yet the insurers have insisted that a security guard is on board: hence Sarah's presence. Of course, the reader knows immediately that things are going to go wrong, and so it proves to be. Many things go wrong, each one a little bit more frantic and perhaps a bit less plausible than the one before.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. Yes, it's a bit too far-fetched in the same way that the plot of a James Bond film is too far-fetched, but at the same time it manages to be as effortlessly entertaining as, well, a James Bond film. If you like fast-paced action thrillers, there's a lot to enjoy here.

The trouble is that it's not easy to blend a fast-paced action thriller and a psychological study. It can be done, because Agatha Christie managed it in 'And Then There Were None'. However, (a) Agatha Christie was a writing genius and (b) she studied the psychology of all of her characters, rather than one in particular.

Angela Marsons has sort of done the same thing from a slightly different angle in her DI Kim Stone series. However, (a) Queen Angie is also a writing genius and (b) she's had a series of 16 novels to explore her psychologically-damaged main character, rather than just one book.

So to say that Cameron Ward hasn't quite pulled off the same trick as those two legendary authors is absolutely no insult. But I just didn't think that the way the plot and the main character came together really quite worked. I felt that the character of Sarah might have been better suited to a slightly slower pace, to allow the reader to really get into her head. Whereas the heroine for a story such as this perhaps needed to be, well, a bit more like James Bond. Larger than life, rather than human.

You can think of this book, then, as curry-flavoured ice-cream, or perhaps a two-seater convertible Land Rover. An interesting idea, and a fine effort has been made to execute it. But ultimately, it can't quite manage to be two things at once.

But that's just my opinion. However, you could also think of this book as one of the many small SUV cars on sale at the moment. I don't really like them because they can't drive off-road as well as a proper 4x4, nor are they as good to drive on the road as an estate car made by the same manufacturer. So I wouldn't buy one. But judging by the number that seem to be littering our roads, I seem to be in a minority. So if you're tempted to read this book, please go ahead. You - like plenty of other people - might think differently to me.

My thanks to the author, Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the digital ARC of this book, which was published on 23rd June. I have reviewed it voluntarily and honestly. I will post my review on Goodreads, Amazon and my personal blog.

This was tense and action-packed thriller that I think would make a great read, just not if you are on a boat!

A fast paced action read set on board a luxury yacht.
This was not meant to be a relaxed Caribbean cruise but a working journey taking the vessel across the Atlantic although nobody expect it to go so wrong.
Employed as the security officer, ex Royal Marine Sarah has to rely on her training to deal with what is happening once they are underway. The initial straightforward job becomes far more complicated and she has to deal with crew members with secrets, working out who can be trusted whilst dealing with her own PSTD issues.
There were a lot of technical terms and descriptions that were over my head but the bones of this book are sound and it keeps the reader fully engaged.

When ex Marine Sarah is offered a routine job as on board security for a multi million dollar yacht delivery she takes it. Time away at sea might be exactly what she needs to finally try and deal with her ongoing PTSD. Twelve days on a luxury yacht with a highly experienced crew should be straight forward enough, enjoyable even, but then odd and dangerous things begin to happen one after another and she realises that perhaps someone on board isn’t who they claim to be. With everyone’s lives becoming increasingly at risk Sarah must work out which of the crew she can trust and who may be trying to sabotage their journey.

I thought the author did a great job of setting the scene, having never been on a “floating palace” (as it’s described in the book) myself I really got a good sense of the sheer luxury of the yacht. The atmosphere and mounting tension between the crew was well done but at times felt a little predictable. I think it was great to have a female as the main hero character in an action thriller book like this; throughout the book you learn more of Sarah’s backstory and I’d love to see this made into an action thriller movie or TV drama, we need more badass females in lead roles like this.

This is a great read. It starts off slow and steady building up a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere and just when you start thinking I wonder where this is going it hits you and there’s no going back. Suddenly the book picks up tempo and doesn’t stop right until it’s explosive ending! Really great read.

Trapped on a floating palace sailing to the Caribbean, it sounds idyllic. Unfortunately, everyone seems to be keeping secrets and life on board implodes as they all become suspects. Nobody can escape, nobody is safe and it is a living nightmare. A gripping end that will surprise you.

I did so enjoy this book that I almost managed to read it in one sitting. Should come with a small "health warning" that, if you are of a nervous disposition and are planning a luxury cruise, this is likely not a book to take on your travels!

If that "health warning" does not apply to you or you are back from your cruise, this book is well worth having close to the top of your reading list.

This is a smartly written and clever thriller. The pace is intense and there is a terrific female protagonist. The setting of a stranded superyacht creates a great atmosphere. The crew are slowing disappearing and it is up to ex Royal Marine, Sarah French, to work out what is going on.

There is plenty of action, excellent dynamics between the characters and never a dull moment. This is a real page turner.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Although this was a really long read, I really enjoyed it. It’s full of action, suspense and a main character that I was rooting for all the way!

The story is well written and has a very good storyline. The descriptions were well described along with the story setting. This would make a fantastic film!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.