Item: The Stowaway
Rating: 4.5
Author: Brian

A Really Interesting Story

4.5 out of 5 stars

This is the fifth book I’ve read from the combined authors of Murray and Wearmouth. I thought I knew going into it what I was getting into but this book took a pleasant turn and surprised me quite a bit. The four other books I’ve read from them would be classified as creature features (ironically one of them was mentioned in this – one of the passengers was reading Don’t Move.

The Stowaway opens up on a murder trial and I honestly had to make sure I was reading the right book. With a title like The Stowaway and a cruise ship on the front I was thinking “what the heck is this”. But it opens with the brutal murders of these children and focuses on some of the jurors. Well, I quickly found out why and I thought that was an interesting and unique way of setting up the back and forth and the “vengeance” angle.

This was one of those books that were creepy and gory without being overdone. I think that Murr and Wearmouth were able to walk that tightrope line of being an interesting story about a serial killer without making it all about the murders. Sure they come up – but it was as much about the present and the mind of the killer as it was about the actual murders.

Being trapped on a cruise ship with a stone-cold killer would be terrifying, and being on there with him after being on the jury to convict him… wow what an idea. And honestly, I think that they got it right. Once they got onto the ship and I started to think like Maria (trying to figure out where/who he was) I absolutely flew through the book. I think I finished it in two or three sittings.

I also loved the narration by Barrie Kreinik. She nailed it and my biggest complaint about the other books was the narration – so going with a female protagonist and narrator really eased some of my issues.

Book Description:

From the writer, producer, and actor best known as “Murr” on the hit television shows Impractical Jokers and The Misery Index, James S. Murray, and co-writer Darren Wearmouth comes The Stowaway, a suspenseful masterpiece that leaves a cruise ship stranded at sea with a serial killer hiding aboard.

Two years ago, Maria Fontana, the head of the psychology department at Columbia University, sat on a jury for one of the most depraved cases ever to pass through the hallowed halls of City Hall. Wyatt Butler, an antique watch restorer and alleged serial killer, was portrayed in the courtroom as a brutal monster. But Maria had to make the tough choice. In good conscience, she couldn’t convict him based purely on circumstantial evidence, and her deciding vote set Wyatt Butler free. The media soon outed her as the lone juror and her successful and quaint life was turned upside down. The victims of Wyatt’s ritualistic killings never forgave her either.

Now, she and her family have decided to take a vacation to get away from everything: a two-week-long transatlantic cruise. Nothing, and nobody should be able to bother her there. With her two twins and her fiancé, Steve, she is set to put the past behind her as soon as the ship leaves port. But when a passenger mysteriously disappears, Maria is left to wonder if maybe this was no coincidence. When another passenger is discovered brutally murdered in a similar way to Butler’s ritualistic MO, the ship goes on lockdown.

Maria, one of only twelve people in the world with intimate knowledge of the case, faces a perilous ticking clock. Is it a copycat? Or is she trapped on board with the bloodthirsty maniac she chose to set free?

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press

The Stowaway by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
Published by Macmillan Audio on September 21st 2021
Genres: Mystery, Sea Adventure
Format: Audiobook
Buy from Audible
Also by this author: Awakened, The Brink, Obliteration, Don't Move, First Activation, Second Activation, Sixth Cycle

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Brian

I’ve loved reading since I was little when my dad would read me Dr. Suess books. Fast-forward a little and I noticed that he was always reading on his lunch breaks at work, and I wondered why.Then, I found a book that took me to another place and time, to another feeling,another sense of “being”.It was the first book that I ever fell in love with, and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.