Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman

What would you do if you found a bag full of cash, diamonds and a gun? Would you turn it over to the authorities or would you keep it to yourself?

I'm really excited to review this book, I loved it! This story kicked my mind's ass; through Catherine Steadman's creatively chaotic style of writing, this novel kept me holding my breath as two ordinary adults try to navigate the world of the rich and dangerous - a world that's hidden in plain sight and has a lot more behind it than you'd like to think.

I'm not going to be giving absolutely everything away in this book review but I sure am going to be getting into some of the real nitty-gritty of what happens in this novel, so be prepared for some SPOILERS!

Let's begin with what initially attracted me to the book - the blurb:

'Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave?

Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough; Mark a handsome investment banker with a bright future. They seem to have it all, until Mark loses his job and cracks start to appear in their perfect life. But they're determined to make it work. They book their dream honeymoon and trust that things will work out - after all, they have each other.

However long you think it takes, double that.

On the tropical island of Bora Bora, Mark takes Erin scuba diving. Mark is with her - she knows he'll keep her safe. Everything will be fine. Until they find something in the water. A suitcase full of cash.

It's boring. And long. And it has to be done.

Erin and Mark decide to keep their discovery a secret - after all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events... Which will endanger everything they hold dear.

I'm not a bad person.

Or maybe I am.

Maybe you should decide.'

I immediately got hooked as I tried to imagine what I would do personally if I found a bag full of cash - with the cost of living going up and life getting harder to live I have to admit I went back and fourth a little! It's not as if the average person carries around bags filled with a million dollars on the regular, so you know whoever owned the bag was bad news. With that in mind the question then becomes: would you steal from bad people? Would it even be necessarily bad to steal from bad people?

Here's the breakdown of the book:

Erin and Mark have been together for 4 years; they live in London and they're planning their wedding/honeymoon of a lifetime. Erin is the voice we hear from throughout the book; she's working on a feature documentary containing interviews with 3 criminals: Holli, a young woman who set a bus on fire during the London riots, Alexa, a woman in her 30's who helped her terminally-ill mother commit suicide, and Eddie, an old-timey gangster from London who once ran a criminal syndicate of sorts that committed murders, money-laundering and lots of other dark stuff I'm sure.

Mark is in the middle of climbing the corporate ladder when he's fired and finds himself stuck between enforced garden leave, a terrible job market and dwindling personal finances.

Mark grows increasingly worried about how expensive the wedding and honeymoon is set to be. Fights become more frequent and escalate which is very out of character for this loved-up couple, so they decide to scale both events back a fair amount in order to keep some savings for a cushion until Mark finds a new job. The wedding goes down without a hitch - it's the best day of their lives. Jetting off to the honeymoon, both Erin and Mark appear to be looking forward to their future: growing old together, kids and the like.

The first couple days of the honeymoon go swimmingly; the couple take part in all sorts of activities most of us readers can only imagine on this gorgeous getaway in Bora Bora. On their way back from a scuba-diving adventure about a week into their trip, Erin and Mark find a patch of open ocean with 5+ reams of paper floating loose accompanied by a black, body-sized canvas duffel bag with a lock on it. I ask you - what would you do in this situation? The first thing that entered my mind at this stage was, 'There's a body in that bag and they are exactly where they should not be so start up that engine and get the hell out of there!'

Of course they don't, they take the bag, open it and find a cool million dollars along with lots of illegal items that point towards the owners being very dark, very dangerous people. At first they do wonder if they can claim the money legally through flotsam or jetsam (which I had heard of before but I admit I didn't know the difference between the two) until they figure out the bag came from a plane crash, submerged deep in the ocean and decide to come to a more underhanded conclusion: they will keep the money, smuggle the diamonds back home and ditch the more illegal stuff at a later stage.

Erin's character begins to change as her curiosity gets the better of her; she goes to absolutely stupid lengths to cash in the bag's contents. It's a complete 180 from the Erin we've been accustomed to before all of this; she's ignoring Mark and his worries about how much Erin's impulsiveness is putting them both in danger - contacting the 'plane people' for example. Why on earth would anyone try to contact bad people who probably want their multiple millions back and no loose ends?!

Anyway, Erin starts getting more closely involved with Eddie. She asks for advice and favours from Eddie, knowing he's well-versed with illegal matters. It just blew my mind the lengths this woman goes to after she's already made a good million from the duffel bag - she is getting so greedy and it's hard to stay on her side as she continues these many missions she's creating for herself, despite Mark practically begging her to leave things alone now they've got the majority of the money. Unfortunately we don't really get to see or hear from Mark - he's being neglected and grows ever more frustrated with his new wife as she continually puts them both in danger by going behind his back and messing up plans they'd previously decided upon together.

That is where I'll leave it - I won't give away everything!

Let's move on to the good points and the bad:

➖ First off, this novel could've used a little editing - the descriptions and mathematics throughout reeked of 'this is my first novel' vibes. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading Erin's thought processes and all, but sometimes these passages went on a little longer than they should've. They were sort of reminiscent of those long, tedious jokes on Family Guy. It wasn't a deal breaker for me though - on the flip side I knew exactly how the character felt in these situations that (hopefully) I'll never find myself in so it became somehow more relatable.

➕ This book is something I would describe as an experience - the suspenseful and dangerous parts actually had me holding my breath. Everything was so well explained and thought out from every angle and every sense a human can experience, it gave you the 360 experience of scuba-diving panic, shooting a Glock for the first time and sweating bullets while walking through the 'Nothing to Declare' section of Heathrow with a million dollars sewn into the lining of your suitcase.

➖ The ending line could've given us more. There was a huge potential for a bad-ass ending line, something that gives us a hint into the next favour she's been asked to do - will she continue into a low-key life a crime, now knowing how the other half live? Does she even have a choice? It's just a decent way of wrapping up a novel - either give us a hint at what will be happening down the line, or leave us with a mystery - but this ending gave us neither of those, just a proverb about saving yourself. It fell a little flat for me.

➕ One of the greatest things I find in a book is when a character develops during the story in a way that changes my feelings towards them. The female protagonist developed into a real human being: flawed, confused but trying her best - there were a few times she fell back into just wanting to make her husband happy while developing this taste for wealth and almost a want to feel the thrill and danger of being a criminal, maybe? But she found herself, or her new developed self, in the end. Mark also changed from a character I loved reading about; someone who was the perfect husband, into... Well, I won't give that away.

➕ I loved the education within the book - there's a running theme of how the 'other half' live, the ins and outs of the rich and the dangerous, the mathematics behind digging a grave - heck, even the easiest ways to keep your prints off a gun (because you NEVER KNOW, right?)

Side note: I Googled some of the details that were described and Erin was right on the money. Don't ask why I double-checked if wrapping duct tape around the handle of a gun is easier to keep your prints off it instead of manually cleaning your prints off after using it; just be grateful, because I'm pretty sure I'm on some kind of a list now thanks to my search history.

➖ There were lots of unanswered questions for me personally, stuff that I won't reveal here but perhaps I will in a total spoiler post. Just a few little blips in the plot that I'm curious about and didn't get closure for - but after this story I think I've learned vicariously not to let my curiosity get the better of me!

I really can't understand the bad reviews on this book - maybe it wasn't given enough time for the scene to be set? One review I read was about a guy who only read the first 100 pages and wasn't drawn in - but dude, the duffel bag is discovered halfway down that 100th page. Before that is a lot of setup for the chaos to come.

Sometimes you've gotta give a slow burn the space it needs.

Anyway, my rating on this novel would be a strong 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 

If I'm recommending this to anyone, I'd say if you're looking for something thrilling that's easy to follow but keeps you guessing, this book is for you.