I was a big fan of Katy Hays’ first novel, THE CLOISTERS, an art history–focused mystery set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters museum. So I was eager to see what she would follow up with next. The answer is SALTWATER, a thriller about family secrets, with a setting that rivals her debut for atmosphere.

In the opening pages, readers accompany the Lingate family on their annual trip to the island of Capri, off Italy’s Amalfi Coast. The year is 2018, and they have been coming back to the island every year since the tragic death of Sarah Lingate in 1992. Some might think that they make this trip as a pilgrimage, to pay their respects to Sarah’s memory. Others --- like Lorna, the family’s assistant who is accompanying them for the first time --- might take a more cynical view. Perhaps the Lingates, Lorna speculates, are just keeping up appearances, maintaining the illusion that Sarah’s death was an accident or a suicide rather than murder.

"[I]f readers just settle in and prepare themselves for a spectacularly bumpy ride, they’ll enjoy this escapist journey to a dazzling locale --- and be glad that they’re actually safe and sound at home."

In addition to Lorna, the surviving Lingates descending on Capri include Helen, Sarah’s daughter and Lorna’s friend; Richard, Helen’s father; Freddy, her boyfriend; Marcus, Richard’s brother; and his wife, Naomi. Although Lorna has never been to Capri before, she does have plenty of other experience, including histories with some of the Lingate family members and their associates that go far deeper than her current employment. Helen, tired of being beholden to her family’s controlling wealth, has her own plans and schemes underway.

But as Sarah discovered almost 30 years earlier, escaping from the Lingates’ clutches is rarely easy --- and often dangerous, even deadly. Mysteries and secrets accumulate as chapters are told from the points of view of a variety of characters. They include Lorna, Helen and Sarah (during flashbacks from the days leading up to her death), as well as other characters from that time. Newspaper reports and other documents also provide context and some clarity, though the plot twists keep coming right up to the final pages.

SALTWATER is an ideal novel for those who like their thrillers with a little bit of glamour and a whole lot of family messiness. The island of Capri is depicted as a rich person’s playground --- abundant in both natural beauty and man-made excess --- but with darkness lurking around the edges. The steepness of Capri’s jagged cliffs symbolizes the dangers around every corner.

At times, in the final quarter of the book, the number of twists and turns can result in the readerly equivalent of whiplash. But if readers just settle in and prepare themselves for a spectacularly bumpy ride, they’ll enjoy this escapist journey to a dazzling locale --- and be glad that they’re actually safe and sound at home.