A fabulous book to get wrapped up in when it’s cold outside and you need a scandi thriller – meet The Women who went Overboard by Florence Wetzel.

The plot:

Agnes Andersson is an awkward middle-aged woman who desperately wants a husband. And what better place to find one than on a cruise along the coast of Norway? During the voyage, Agnes meets her ideal man, a handsome Norwegian widower named Einar. The only problem is that Einar prefers Pamela – Agnes’ new best friend.

When Pamela’s body washes ashore almost a year later, her daughter visits Agnes to ask questions about the cruise. Their conversation becomes a cat-and-mouse game where Agnes bends the facts to avoid revealing the truth about Pamela’s disappearance and death.

Be right back whilst I go read more by this author

A shocking and unexpectedly twist-y read, I highly rate this book!

I loved the way The Women who went Overboard flowed – you have chapters split between each day and the activities, with the odd paragraph break back to present time with Wendy, Pamela’s daughter, who is trying to find out more about her mother’s death, one year on. It’s not completely fulfilling that nordic noir genre, as it doesn’t have that police procedural stance, but you do get that vibe with Wendy.

Because of this flow, it’s an incredibly quick read and I read this in one sitting. There’s lots of conversation, but Wetzel has intertwined this with a delicious backdrop on a cruise, allowing you to be transported with the characters. I visited so many little towns and did little excursions all without getting on a cruise which I now wished I was on (minus the woman who went overboard)!

I did find myself often trying to work out where the plot was going, but to no avail – it’s not a scary book, in the sense that it won’t keep you awake at night (although possibly if you’re on a cruise), but it’s creepy, page-turning thriller allowing you to work out the extreme limits some might go to, and also how a person may think and work.

The romantic obsession element FREAKED ME OUT. One minute I was feeling for Agnes, the protagonist, and wanted to give her a cuddle, and the next minute I got an Annie from Stephen King’s Misery vibe and wanted to avoid at all costs.

There aren’t too many characters to follow but they’re rich with personality. Per and Maj are the type of couple you want to be around, Sandy’s the type of woman you can imagine on one of these cruises with all her sass (and a little bit annoying) and I’d say we all know a Pamela. Einar’s a strange one, but definitely the sort of character you see in these nordic noir books.

I’m surprised that this book made me laugh out loud a few times, in-between cringing over Agnes literally from the beginning to the end. You have a self-depreciating character who mentions 5000x times that she’s middle-aged and overweight and she honestly felt so realistic. I did find that there was a lot of repetition from Agnes, but I feel like this showed her mental state. My main takeaway was how different Agnes was with different people, especially when one second she’s telling Wendy something and the next page is a different story.

A solid 4-star scandi thriller – well worth the read and I’m thoroughly impressed with the flow of the book and how much it allowed me to engage. Be right back whilst I go read more by this author.

The Woman who went Overboard, Florence Wetzel, RRP £18.50 (paperback); Book Depository 

Pages: 382

Publisher: Books on Demand

Genre: Scandinavian Thriller/ Nordic Noir