Contemporary Fiction: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

At long last, I have finally come around to reading and posting about Paula Hawkins' second novel, Into the Water. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, delighted (and also troubled) many and was eventually made into a movie. I was already made aware that her follow-up, while not quite like the first one, was also a thrilling mystery that may keep the reader guessing.

The Situation: When Nel Abbott's body is found in the river, the reaction to the news is mixed. For some, the news comes as a relief, mixed in with a little joy if some are honest. For others it is distressing. And for still others, it is a little bit of both. Understandably, Nel's 15 year-old daughter Lena is distraught and finds reason to be angry with nearly everyone, including herself. A good amount of her wrath is focused on Jules, Nel's estranged sister, who is now being dragged back to the one place she never wanted to see again. Upon returning, she learns that her sister was not well-liked in the small community, mostly because of her work and research into what she called The Drowning Pool. It seems the river has a history of claiming the lives of "troublesome" women, with Nel being the most recent addition. Now Jules, as well as nearly everyone else in town, must once again confront their own history and what they are each capable of and responsible for.

The Problem: Dealing with a sister's death, even an estranged one, is difficult enough. But Jules finds herself having to deal with the death that occurred before Nel's as well. It seems a friend of Lena's also committed suicide at the river, something that Nel was blamed for by the girl's mother. While that investigation has been closed for some time, it seems that Nel's death has served to bring new evidence, as well as old emotions and old stories. Not everyone in town believes that Nel killed herself, or that the whole story was told concerning the other deaths at the river. There are even a few who believe the person responsible is still a threat, and the women in town are still in danger. But it seems everyone is hiding something, and almost anyone connected to the women who died feel some amount of pain or grief, whether they are actually guilty or not. 

Genre, Themes, History: This is a fiction novel set in present day in a small town in England. If there was one main character it would be Jules, the sister of the most recent woman to die at the river. But there is also the daughter, Lena, who is now grieving the loss of her mother, while also having not gotten over the death of her best friend, Katie. There are many other slightly less prominent characters, though still important, such as Sean Townsend, the lead investigator into Nel's death, as well as his wife, Helen, and father, Patrick. The local psychic, Nickie, claims to know things, and also commune with the dead, but mostly she gets on people's nerves as they do not believe her. And when it seems she does have something helpful to offer, she is cryptic and vague, causing most people to give up on her. The story switches between the points of view of nearly everyone involved, allowing the reader to get a glimpse into why people do what they do and say what they say, especially in times of tragedy. This town has a history it would rather ignore, and perhaps that is why it keeps repeating itself.

My Verdict: While this is a good story, it is not necessarily a good mystery. It is fairly easy to see in what direction this book is headed as soon as it is understood that Nel Abbott was not a well-liked person. And after reading at least one chapter from the point of view of each key player, it was easy to know what actually happened and who is responsible. The mystery part just was not there for me. And while the character development may have been on point, their relationships with each other were often hard to believe. In the end, there were more than a few loose ends that were not properly tied up, at least in my opinion, and the big reveal did not feel that big. There were many missed opportunities that would have made this book a bigger page turner than its predecessor, but something just was not there. Many details seemed tacked on, as if they were an afterthought. If anything, the one motivation the reader has to keep turning the page is to see if justice is brought to the right person, or at least to the characters that we do not like.

Favorite Moment: When Louise, Katie's mother, was forced to the realization that she did not really know her daughter.

Favorite Character: There was not one character in this book that did not aggravate me in some way, but in the end I will pick Jules for gathering the strength to return to this community and confront her own mistakes.

Recommended Reading: The Girl on the Train is much more suspenseful and certainly worth the anxiety that comes from reading such a disturbing story.