I hope you don’t find him. And if you do, I hope he’s dead and that he suffered… home with Martin in an Australian coastal town will be like living a fairy tale. But behind closed doors is another story—one that ends in Martin’s brutal murder. And Ellie seems almost relieved…
Naturally, everyone thinks Mrs. Cresswell-Smith is guilty.
Senior Constable Lozza Bianchi has reasonable doubt. She sees evidence of a twisted psychological battle and a couple who seemed to bring out the worst in each other—adultery, abuse, betrayal, and revenge. If anything Ellie says can be believed, that is. As the case takes twist after spiraling twist, Lozza can’t shake the gut instinct that she’s being manipulated. That Ellie is hiding something. That there are secrets yet to surface. Lozza has no idea.
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This is the fifth LAW book that I’ve read and this one is not my favorite. I still like all the other LAW books that I’ve read and I still think she’s a good storyteller and writer. Even this one was a good story that was well written. My problem with it was Ellie; I didn’t like her, ever since she dropped everything for Martin when he called and insisted she choose him right now. I didn’t even like the way the story ended for her and especially the epilogue.
This won’t turn me off of future LAW books though. I currently have Dark Lure in my to-read shelf and look forward to checking it out.
WOW!!! Another 5 star book from Mrs. White. I came across her accidentally on Amazon and I am so glad that I did!!!
I am not one to scare or surprise easily but this one had my heart pounding and anxiety flaring! What an amazing journey with shocking twists that I never imagined. When I finished, I immediately had to start over, I was so surprised!!!!
December 6, 2020
Wait, What?! So Good!
This is a, “Wait, What?!” Kinda book? So good I want everyone else I know to read it too so I can see if it happens to Them, Too!
I love stories that keep me guessing and this one was fantastic! Ellie is a rich heiress with a troubled past who begins a whirlwind romance at the perfect time with Martin a wealthy businessman. He whisks her off to Australia to begin a business venture that he has used her inheritance to back. Ellie has fears about her new husband and confides in a local about her concerns. Nothing is at it seems and the secrets and deception run deep in this book – loved it!
In the Deep by Loreth Anne White is brilliant, a compulsive five star psychological thriller. The story follows Canadian heiress Ellie Hartley in the months following her whirlwind romance with Australian real estate mogul Martin Smith, who she marries just days after meeting. Then, after four months in his native Australia, Ellie’s life starts to spiral out of control. When her new husband is found murdered, Ellie’s unexplained blackouts and use of alcohol and drugs make her the prime suspect. Then, as the investigation by Senior Constable Detective Lozza Bianchi progresses, the author pulls the reader into the backstory of Ellie’s life including her first marriage, her controlling father, her past friendships, and her descent into threatened madness.
Wow! There are so many twists and turns in this thriller, and the ending has everything. I loved the story, characters and the author’s writing style. Few of the characters were very likable but they made the book work. Lozza Bianchi was the only redeemable character. She actually could see what was really happening and what people were trying to hide. The author’s skill is in having you constantly guessing, and then leaving you surprised. If you’re looking for a book to have your heart racing, this is it. Five stars!
Smart, compelling and flawlessly plotted, with red herrings sprinkled in like little dashes of chilli, In The Deep is seriously entertaining. And that ending! I’m still running it through my mind the next day!. Atmospheric and tightly plotted with a twist at end that is so flawlessly executed I had NO idea it was even going to happen. Absolute perfection!
If you are looking for a tense, edge-of-your-seat, thriller with an unreliable narrator, this book is perfect. White is a master of tangled suspense that keeps you guessing to the end.
There’s a scene in IN THE DEEP that takes place during a magic show. Martin Creswell-Smith is telling Ellie Tyler that a magician must successfully misdirect the audience to achieve their aim; they need to make viewers look one way, while something slips past another way. Well, Loreth Anne White, you got me. I do my best to unravel a mystery before the book’s denouement, but the big twist in this book got away from me.
One indisputable fact we learn early on is that Martin Creswell-Smith is dead. From their whirlwind courtship, followed by a brief, tumultuous marriage that ends in murder, Martin and Ellie’s relationship plays out publicly and privately. There is physical and verbal abuse, there are games and secrets and infidelity. There is Ellie’s battle with alcohol and drugs; a battle that she often loses, resulting in loss of memory. It’s no wonder she’s a prime suspect in Martin’s murder. Ellie certainly had the means, motive and opportunity, but things aren’t quite fitting together. Is Ellie clever enough to get away with it? Or is there something else at play?
IN THE DEEP kept me entertained and invested in the story. I was unsure of who killed Martin until the reveal. Frankly, it got to the point where I could argue that multiple characters seemed suspicious but that final nail in the coffin was missing.
I enjoyed White’s writing style. The words flowed smoothly, and I particularly enjoyed her description of the NSW South Coast; I could feel the heat, see the landscape and hear the screeching of those pesky bats and other – unfamiliar to Ellie – animals.
I’ll definitely be looking to read more of this author’s work.
Wow!! Boy, oh boy! I did not see that one coming! In The Deep was a psychological thrill ride from start to finish. The ultimate gaslight that will leave you thinking about it long after you close the book. Loreth Anne White has delivered once again. That’s why her books are always a must read!
With In The Deep, Loreth Anne White departs from her usual settings of the chilly Pacific Northwest or the Canadian tundra and takes us to the warm, subtropical coast of Australia’s New South Wales. This isn’t her usual police procedural/murder mystery fare either, because while there is a murder to solve, the story is told by the suspects and those closest to the victim, rather than by those investigating the crime. It’s a domestic noir type of psychological thriller… and Loreth Anne White proves to be equally as adept with this type of fare, because In The Deep is quite simply brilliant.
Heiress Ellie Tyler is still deep in grief and trauma after the drowning death of her daughter when she meets Martin Cresswell-Smith, Australian real estate developer. After a whirlwind courtship, the pair marry in Vegas and Ellie travels to Australia where Martin is working on a major new marina development in the tiny beachside town of Jarrawarra Bay. On his own turf, Martin is a very different man to the fun-loving, charming one Ellie thought she’d married, though. A few locals do their best to be friendly, but Ellie quickly realises she’s in over her head.
The story is told in two timelines set a little over a year apart; Ellie’s first meeting and brief romance with Martin and her coming to Jarrawarra Bay… and the murder trial after Martin’s body is discovered.
I had my suspicions about the real villain from their introduction, but I have to admit the twist itself flabbergasted me when it came, despite the fact that I had all the information right from the beginning. White is a master storyteller who performs a brilliant piece of sleight-of-hand writing here, telling you the truth while simultaneously showing you a lie, and because of the way our brains are wired, we follow along with the lie and don’t spot the real truth until it’s pointed out. A second little twist right at the end got me as well, and I put the book down both delighted and discomfited by how cleverly I’d been misdirected.
The Australian settings are very well done; the author spent time in the area described and had Australian readers to check the writing before publication, though a very un-Australian terror of the wildlife did creep in at times. Perfectly understandable in the Canadian heroine but not so much when an Aussie character freaked out over a redback spider. That was my only tiny niggle in an entirely fantastic story, and since international audiences would probably think it entirely legitimate to freak out over a poisonous spider, it’s absolutely forgivable. I’m delighted to give this story five stars and I’m really looking forward to see what the author decides to write next.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
Wow! This book sucked me in right away and kept me guessing the entire way. In the Deep is a psychological thriller involving heiress Ellie Hartley and her new husband Martin Cresswell-Smith. It’s a chance meeting with a fast love affair that leads to them working together on Martin’s new prospective real estate development in Australia. The beginning of the book opens with the trial for the murder of Martin and the story that unfolds had my heart racing with all its suspenseful twists and turns. White has such a way of writing that has you guessing as the reader which way is up and leaves you surprised at several points in the book. It is exactly what you want from a thriller. There is child loss and domestic violence on the page that is necessary to the story so a trigger warning for that. If you are looking for a book to have your heart racing, this is it. 5 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for an ARC of this book. The opinions here are my own.
***** AUDIOBOOK REVIEW *****
Pure and simple… In the Deep was a crazy ride! It was a full on, worth every bit of five-stars as possible. Loreth Ann White develops the story slowly. She kind of starts at the end of the story and works back and forth a bit. It’s such a teasing, taunting way to develop a story… I was pretty much obsessed with it! It offers everything we commoners want in a rich and famous-type scandal. Not only was the story compulsive but the way White sets up a scene. The descriptors she uses are so vivid. She develops the scene right before your vary eyes!
Sarah Zimmerman was just what this story called for. She brought this no-nonsense feel to Elle that combined with the written word. Zimmerman is able to step into the characters mindset and really portray the vibe the author is going for. It’s a good narrator that can read an enjoyable story. A fabulous narrator transports you into the fly on the wall. That’s what Zimmerman was able to achieve. Complete success!
Thank you Brilliance Publishing for the complimentary copy of this audiobook with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… my opinions.
IN THE DEEP by Loreth Anne White is a contemporary, adult, psychological thriller focusing on Canadian heiress and children’s book artist Ellie Hartley Cresswell-Smith, and the investigation into the murder of her husband, real estate mogul Martin Cresswell Smith.
Told from several first and third person perspectives including Ellie Hartley and Senior Constable Laurel ‘Lozza’ Bianchi, IN THE DEEP follows Canadian heiress Ellie Hartley in the months following her whirlwind romance with Australian real estate mogul Martin Cresswell Smith. Within days after meeting Martin Cresswell, Ellie Hartley reluctantly agrees to a working European vacation culminated by their marriage in Las Vegas, Nevada. Four months will pass before Ellie joins Martin in Australia where her life is about to spiral out of control. Frequent unexplained blackouts blamed on the use of alcohol and drugs finds our heroine the prime suspect in her husband’s murder, a murder predicated on secrets and lies. As the investigation, by Senior Constable Detective Lozza Bianchi, into Ellie’s husband’s murder takes on a life of it’s own, the author pulls the reader into the backstory and history of Ellie’s life including her first marriage, her controlling father, her friendship with Dana Bainbridge in Vancouver BC, and her descent into madness at the expense of her own happiness and sanity.
IN THE DEEP takes place in Agnes Basin, New South Wales, Australia where Ellie becomes suspicious within minutes upon arrival. Although welcomed into the bosom of small town life, Ellie finds herself on the outside looking in, and the unenviable target of her new husband’s anger and rage. Not all is well in Ellie’s less than well-ordered life but she never expected to find herself on the defensive with strangers who meant more to her husband than she could ever have imagined.
Loreth Ann White pulls the reader into a suspense filled, psychological thriller of murder, deception, secrets and lies, intricate games of life and death. With a colorful, energetic and eclectic cast of secondary and supporting characters, IN THE DEEP is a complex and detailed story with so many twists and turns- you won’t be able to stop reading until the very end.
This is a thrill ride of a read. There are lots of twists and turns. The story is well-written and has interesting characters.
I was fortunate to read an advance copy of this book. Amazing work by an author to watch!!
Loreth Anne White is one of those authors that you know you are going to get a story you just don’t see coming. Holy heck, was this one of those books. I will admit, this was the first book I have read of Loreth Anne White’s that I couldn’t get into it at first. However, once I got over the initial stumbling block, I couldn’t put it down. I think the main stumbling part is that I’ve never been anywhere close to Australia before so the terminology and what not threw me. However, even with that stumbling block, I was entranced in the story line. It goes from the past to the present and she wrote is so cleverly.
I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give away the ending. All I will say about the ending is that you don’t see it coming at all! If you love psychological thrillers, In the Deep by Loreth Anne White is right up your alley!
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Loreth Anne White could write an instruction manual and I would read it. Quite honestly, it would probably be the best written instruction manual ever. No one does descriptive writing quite like Loreth Anne White. When you read a Loreth Anne White novel, you ARE THERE! You become transfixed, you feel the wind blowing through your hair, the salt water misting your face, the sun heating your skin. I don’t know… it’s simply amazing how she sets the scene. You’re not simply reading one of her novels, you’re living it.
So, this is one of those novels that I feel you can’t give too much away. I went into this one blind, because well, it’s Loreth Anne White, DUH! I think not knowing what to expect made it all the better. So, this will be one of those reviews where I’m not going to give you anything. I think the synopsis says enough.
What I will say is that in some ways, it’s kind of a slow burn. You’re sitting there, thinking… “where is this going?” When it’s over… bring on the slow clap.
I want to thank NetGalley, Montlake Romance and Loreth Anne White for allowing me the chance to read this novel in exchange for my review. I am a fan for life!
In The Deep by Loreth Anne White a five-star read that will suck you into the murky depths. I will be honest and admit that I nearly lost this story at times, but what a complex and twisted web we are woven, I am so glad I kept going as it turned into an unforgettable read that has its hooks sunk so deep into me I may never come to the surface. I do not know what to say about this one as its one that anything I reveal could give away the game, there are so many points that you could figure some of the twists but they are so well done I really hope that you don’t. This was my first by this author, but it won’t be my last as I enjoyed the end of this so much.
Poor little rich girl Ellie rushes into marriage with property developer Martin and insists on underwriting his pet project in Australia. As soon as she arrives in Australia, Ellie finds that Martin is different behind closed doors, and that the development is facing many obstacles. When Martin is brutally murdered, will his wife be blamed?
This is a well-constructed, well-paced thriller with clever twists and turns. The Australian settings are rich and evocative, and the characters are sharply drawn. Frequent thriller readers may predict the major twists.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.