Paula Hawkins: Into the water, Doubleday, large format paperback 978085752440,

(German edition: Into the water. Traue keinem. Auch nicht dir selbst., Blanvalet Verlag, broschiert, 9783764505233, € 14,99 )

Paula Hawkins success with “Girl on the train” has catapulted her to the front of bestseller lists in many countries, recently also released as a film.  “Into the water” is her much awaited second novel, a psychological thriller.

I really had my problems getting into this book, I did not like most of the characters and still don't but the book gathered speedy as far as the plot is concerned towards the middle of the book and the ending does have an unexpected twist.  But all in all, many developments where far too predictable for my taste. 

The novel is set in the small village of Beckford were several “troublesome” women have found their death by either committing suicide or being drowned in the “Drowning pool” going back to the days of witch hunts. The story is told from the view point of several characters in the novel. Nel Abbot, a photographer who decides to document the story of these women, is found drowned in this very river. Before her death she has tried in vain to get in touch with her estranged sister Julia called Jules whom she claims to have saved from drowning. Jules has her own troubled history with the town of Beckford and her sister Nel in particular. But when she meets her sisters Nel’s teenage daughter Lena for the first time, Jules finds they both are not convinced that this was a suicide as the  police have determined. Sean Townsend and Erin are the leading investigators into Nel’s death who soon discover that Nel’s death might be connected to past victims such as Lauren, the mother of  Sean Townsend.

Although Paula Hawkins knows how to spin a yarn, the novel never really captured me and has left me unimpressed.