Sometimes you just need to read a fast-paced mystery thriller about a group of influencers stuck on a yacht. And if you didn’t know that’s what you needed, trust me, that’s because you haven’t picked up The Last Time We Drowned by Saratoga Schaefer.
I’ve read my share of murder mysteries, but The Last Time We Drowned was still a mostly surprising and truly entertaining read, even for someone who is pretty familiar with the genre. Consider this: I casually read about the first three chapters, and then found myself sneaking a page or two in between doing stuff I actually needed to be doing, like, you know, working.
By the end of my workday, I was very happy not just because I was done working, but because I could actually sit down and finish the book! If you want my advice, pick this one up when you have time to read it in one sitting. Chances are you will.
The book follows Charlie Engels, a bookstagramer who is very much broke and desperate when she gets the offer of a lifetime: join Empress, a state-of-the-art yacht turned influencer paradise. She’s promised lucrative brand deals and sisterhood, but what she gets is ghosts and people who take “influencer culture is ruthless” to the next level.
If the book does anything well, it’s building the tension, which is precisely what you want in a thriller. But there’s also a very honest portrayal of grief in the middle of this thriller, one that at times catches you off guard with its realness. That, combined with the way the book focuses on content creators, helps make this feel like a brand new story, even if Schaefer uses some old tricks to tell this tale.
That’s a compliment, not a knock on the writing. In fact, this being my first Saratoga Schaefer book, I admit I was left curious about their other books. You might like the plot of one book more than another, but smart writing and good pacing will always get me interested. This book had both in spades.
Of course, whether you like Charlie or not depends on how much you can find to relate to in someone who is very much what she’s described to be: an influencer, through and through. There’s a little depth to her at times, but Schaefer isn’t writing a character that deviates too much from the stereotype. For me, it didn’t really matter if, in the end, I couldn’t see myself in Charlie, because I was still very interested in what was going on.
However, if you need to relate to the heroine to like the book, perhaps this might not be the book for you. However, if what you want is a book you won’t be able to put down, one that will deliver a story that won’t always go where you thought it would go, this is a very good choice.
Six influencers. One luxury yacht. Nowhere to hide.
Charlie Engels is broke and desperate when her bookstagram account lands her the offer of a lifetime: join Empress, a state-of-the-art yacht houseboat off the Florida Keys turned influencer paradise. Lucrative brand deals and a ready-made “sisterhood” of internet stars—it may not be Charlie’s dream job, but she knows she’d be a fool to turn it down.
It’s also the perfect distraction; Charlie’s eager to outrun her past and a staggering betrayal by her former best friend. Now, aboard Empress, Charlie is surrounded by dazzling women with their own baggage: the magnetic but ruthless leader, the spiraling fashion queen, the inseparable twins, the peacemaker with cracks in her confidence, and the memory of the influencer who Charlie is replacing. The same influencer who Charlie keeps seeing on board, even though the others insist she quit.
But when a hurricane traps the group at sea with their billionaire boss, the dream turns claustrophobic. Communications cut. Supplies dwindling. Old betrayals bubbling to the surface. Then the first body drops.
As paranoia mounts and alliances splinter, Charlie realizes the real danger isn’t the storm outside—it’s the deadly games being played below deck. And if she can’t outwit a killer, her past won’t be the only ghost that comes back to drown her.
Razor-sharp, atmospheric, and impossible to put down, THE LAST TIME WE DROWNED is a locked-room psychological thriller where luxury curdles into terror and survival comes at the highest price.
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The Last Time We Drowned is available now wherever books are sold.
