Review: Swimming at Night by Lucy Clarke

Book: Swimming at Night

Author: Lucy Clarke

Pages: 384

I Read It On: My iPad

I Read it in:  5 hours

Plot Summary: People go traveling for two reasons: because they are searching for something, or they are running from something. 

Katie’s world is shattered by the news that her headstrong and bohemian younger sister, Mia, has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff in Bali. The authorities say that Mia jumped—that her death was a suicide. 

Although they’d hardly spoken to each other since Mia suddenly left on an around-the-world trip six months earlier, Katie refuses to accept that her sister would have taken her own life. Distraught that they never made peace, Katie leaves her orderly, sheltered life in London behind and embarks on a journey to find out the truth. With only the entries in Mia’s travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister’s life and—page by page, country by country—begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death. 

What I Liked: Quick bullet points here:

• Loved the premise of the story- a sister dies mysteriously in a foreign country, where she was not supposed to be and her older sister decides to go looking for her. There was an element of mystery and of retracing someone's steps, which immediately appealed to me. 
• I loved Mia's character- her feeling lost, out-of-place in her family and, sometimes, in the world, her impulsiveness, her unexpressed love for her sister.. She is a wonderful character, who is fairly enigmatic for most of the book and you start to understand what drives her and what she is running from only gradually. 
• Katie is a contrast to Mia in every way- she is the sensible one. She is the one who makes the 'right' choices, she stays in control of her emotions and impulses and has never done anything remotely wild or out of character. So, it was a huge change for her to leave her simple and structured life behind and follow in Mia's footsteps, hoping to understand the events during Mia's journey that could have led to her taking her own life. Katie's journey is interesting at multiple levels and her growth as a character was interesting to watch. 
• The writing is beautiful and very evocative- you can picture the beautiful Hawaiian beaches and the wilderness of Western Australia and even the wild beauty of Bali. 
• Supporting characters were also well crafted and well used. There was an overall economy of words and situations and sub-plots and the book didn't meaninglessly meander- always a good thing! 

What I Didn't Like: The ending felt a bit rushed. Mia's death's mystery was, almost, too conveniently and magically resolved. It seemed like the author didn't want to add anything more to Katie's adventures and wanted to wrap up the book very quickly. 

Rating: 4/5 (Recommend it if you enjoy well written mystery books)