Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Woman in Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10
reviewed on + 4 more book reviews


This was a quick read that ultimately didn't live up to its potential. It's written using one of the most overused plot device to become popular over the last couple of years - the unreliable narrator - and the result is a book starring a woman too annoying for the reader to root for. Lo Blacklock (a ridiculous name too) is a mess - she drinks too much, is rude to everyone she meets, and exhibits no intelligence or professionalism that would make anyone mistake her for a competent journalist. The fact that she happened to be right about a crime having taken place has more to do with blind luck than anything else.

The real mystery, once it's revealed, was a let down. During the first half of the book, I at least was able to enjoy the book as I was curious as to what was really going on. But once that is revealed at about the halfway point, the book came to a grinding halt. From then on, it's just pages and pages of Lo talking to herself, working on the mystery in her head so the author can info dump on the readers. And when I finally turned the last page, I had trouble believing the book is actually over since at no point in the book did Lo even come face to face with the real killer! (The real resolution to the plot actually happened off-page without Lo even being present.) Talking about anti-climactic...