Distress Signals

Mysteries at sea are the best, and this one wouldn't let me shut my eyes until I had finished it. The perfect opening line is "I jump before I decide I'm going to." In Cork, Ireland, Adam's longtime girlfriend Sarah suddenly cuts her hair short, right before departing for a business trip to Barcelona. And then: silence. Sarah is gone. The police won't help much because she's an adult and has the right to disappear (hmmm - a plot hole? Would they really do that?). Adam and Sarah's parents seem to be the only ones concerned. Eventually, Adam learns that Sarah was seeing another man whom she met through work. After her passport is mailed to their home, with still no word from her, Adam's frantic research turns up Sarah's boarding a cruise show more ship, and the discovery that she is not the only passenger who's ever gone missing from the ironically named cruise ship Celebrate. The tragic stories of two other men, one whose wife had also disappeared, and one who was exiled from his family, intersect with Adam's determination to find out why Sarah left their comfortable ten year relationship behind. This debut mystery is agonizingly suspenseful and very well written, with nothing given away. show less

As I was listening to Catherine Ryan Howard’s nerve-racking debut thriller, I kept wondering if the book was sold in cruise ship gift shops. If so — eek! Nothing like adding some paranoia to your vacation! Seriously though, DISTRESS SIGNALS was an amazing read. There are many layers to this complex mystery, and the characters really stand out.

When Adam Dunne’s girlfriend Sarah doesn’t return from a business trip, he manages to track her last whereabouts to a Mediterranean cruise ship called the Celebrate. Was she the victim of foul play, or did she decide to disappear on her own? The cruise ship company is less than helpful, and Adam soon discovers that these ships are like their own little cutoff worlds. Maritime law can be a show more tricky and frustrating thing. When Adam learns of another woman’s disappearance on the same ship a year earlier, he ends up on the Celebrate himself to search for answers.

I enjoyed this book very much. It felt realistic as to what someone would go through to find a missing loved one. Nice build up of tension watching Adam goes through the steps, and trying to figure out how the other characters connect with Sarah’s disappearance. I loved as the layers unfolded, leading up to a surprising twist that changed everything. DISTRESS SIGNALS is going on my 2017 favorites list!

Audiobook • 11 hrs, 42 mins • Narrators: Alan Smyth, Bronson Pinchot, Suzanne Toren

Wonderful performances all-around for the audio version of DISTRESS SIGNALS. Alan Smyth was the voice of Adam, and he did a great job conveying Adam’s desperation and confusion during his search for Sarah. To avoid spoilers, I don’t want to go into detail about Bronson Pinchot’s and Suzanne Toren’s characters, but I will say that their performances were spot-on too, capturing their characters’ nuances. I’d highly recommend giving this book a listen!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. show less

I almost hate calling this book a debut novel as it reads like it is the tenth novel from new author, Catherine Ryan Howard. The concept of this book is what grabbed my attention. As soon as this book arrived I grabbed it and started reading it. From the first chapter I was hooked. I could not stop reading. In fact, I almost finished the book during my lunch hour. I had to force myself to put down the book and go back to work. However, you can bet once my day was over I was right back to this book. I finished it.

There was a moment where I thought I had it all figured out. I was so proud of myself but then the twists came and I realized that I had it all wrong. There was one twist that was so out of left field that I was shocked when show more the truth came out. The ending was great. Nothing worse then reading a book to come to a weak ending. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book from this author. Distress Signals is a must read and a best book of 2017! show less

Fantastic first book by this author. I found it to be a page turner and liked the twist at the end. Although there were some parts of the ending that I wished the author had explained in more detail about Peter and Estelle. The description of the cruise ship and itinerary was very unnerving for me since I think I took that cruise on that ship in 2015!

Distress Signals is an addictive and compelling tale of love, betrayal, loss and hope. The mystery surrounding Sarah's disappearance had me glued for the entire book. The twists and turns in the story meant that once I'd started reading I couldn't put it down until I'd reached the conclusion.
The characters and the situations they find themselves in are so realistic and true to life it scarily reads like a true story.
The reaction of Sarah's parents when they couldn't contact her after a day or two resonated with me as my own parents would react in exactly the same way. Their dealings with the Gardaí when reporting Sarah missing was also how I would imagine it to be in real life. I couldn't help but feel the family's pain and frustration show more at the lack of information and support available to them.
Also what makes the story so realistic is that not one of the characters is painted black or white, good or evil. Each one is likeable and relate-able but they also have flaws and a breaking point that leads them to act in ways they wouldn't necessarily do in ordinary circumstances. Even the supporting characters are given a fleshed out background and you get a real sense of how life has shaped them and influenced the decisions they make. Although I loved both Sarah and Adam I found myself feeling annoyed with them at times because of their actions or in in Adam's case his inaction. At the same time I was I rooting for them and hoping against hope that Adam would find the answers he was searching for and bring home the girl he loves.

Distress Signals certainly doesn't disappoint. A brilliantly crafted mystery/thriller I can recommend to all friends and family.

It's one book I'll be hounding everyone read because it's that good. show less

If you've ever watched a series of Damages, you will know what I mean when I say that this book started with a glimpse of the ending and I couldn't read fast enough to find out how it got there. The first sentence sees Adam jumping off a cruise liner and my heart rate immediately began to speed up. After a few paragraphs, you realise that he wasn't the only one to go overboard...from then on, I was caught hook, line and sinker!

Adam thinks his girlfriend, Sarah, has gone on a business trip to Barcelona but when she doesn't return he starts to get worried. Sarah's friends and parents have not heard from her and then Adam receives an envelope containing Sarah's passport and a post-it note saying that she's sorry. I had tingles up my spine show more when Adam got this - has Sarah disappeared to begin a new life or has something more sinister happened? Engage thrusters: increase reading speed.

As if that wasn't intriguing enough, interspersed chapters introduce us to Corinne and Romain. Corinne is working on the Celebrate, a luxury cruise liner, and she appears to have something to hide. Romain's story begins when he was a young boy and trouble seems to follow him around. His story, although disturbing, was really sad at times and I thought he might have had a better life if he had got some help early on. So what do Corinne and Romain have to do with Sarah's story? I'm not going to tell you but it's all part of the mystery of the Celebrate.

Adam starts to dig around to find out what happened to Sarah and his search leads him to the Celebrate. Sarah is not the only person to go missing on that ship and Adam enlists the help of another man searching for his wife. The suspense and tension mounts with every page as the mystery is gradually revealed. I was suspicious of everyone but could never have imagined the brilliant ending.

Distress Signals has all the ingredients for a wonderfully written thriller. Full of twists and turns, clues and red herrings; it's an all round gripping read that is sure to be a big hit in 2016.

I received this book from the publisher, Corvus, in exchange for an honest review. show less

Adam Dunne's longtime girlfriend, Sarah, is not on the plane when she's due to return from a Barcelona business trip. His life begins to crumble more and more with each passing day as texts and phone calls to her cell go unanswered. How could she leave him like this? How could she have gone to Barcelona and not tell her parents? Then Sarah's passport and a note that simply reads "I'm sorry-S" arrives in their mailbox. Adam believes something more sinister is going on and that Sarah didn't just decide to leave her old life behind. That's not the Sarah he knows. Or maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought he did. But as he digs around he is able to connect Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate and to a woman who disappeared show more from that same ship almost exactly a year before. Adam needs answers and will do whatever he has to do in order to find out what really happened to his girlfriend.

Wow. This book was GOOD! I was hooked from the very first sentence! It's one of those books where I couldn't read it fast enough but didn't want it to end. The suspense, the setting, the plot, the twists, the characters - everything about this book was excellent. It definitely shows you the darker side of what goes on on cruise ships. Very interesting. show less