The Surf House
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4.0 • 9 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An Apple Best Book of the Month
Welcome to The Surf House
Where everyone’s escaping something . . .
Praised as “the queen of the destination thriller” (Claire Douglas), million-copy and internationally bestselling author Lucy Clarke writes intoxicating, unsettling novels of suspense, deception, and the pleasure and danger of travel. Her daring new novel, The Surf House, is a sun-soaked thriller set in an expat community of surfers in Morocco where deadly secrets threaten to breach the surface.
High on the cliffs of Morocco, far from the city lights and the souks, stands The Surf House: a sanctuary for travelers chasing sunshine and waves. But the idyll hides a dark mystery. And when Bea washes in, seeking refuge after a dangerous encounter in Marrakesh, she soon gets caught in the current. A woman her age—who stayed in the same area, walked the same beaches, met the same guests—disappeared one year earlier, vanishing without trace. Somewhere inside The Surf House lies the truth—but there’ll be a price for uncovering it.
In this darkly seductive and compulsive tale, The Surf House’s warm and comforting refuge increasingly takes on the paranoid aspect of a house of mirrors. As Lucy Clarke’s authoritative voice guides us through its shifting sands, The Surf House reaffirms her as a novelist at the height of her powers and announces her excellence to new readers who have not yet embarked on one of her searing thrillers.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Nobody mixes twisty surprises and picturesque locations like British destination thriller star Lucy Clarke (One of the Girls). English model Bea, sick of a career she never wanted in the first place, walks out of a photoshoot in Marrakesh and suddenly finds herself in a dangerous situation. But she’s saved by a stranger named Marnie who whisks her off to the beachside inn she runs for visiting surfers. The vibes aren’t as tranquil as they seem, though, especially when Bea learns that a girl her age mysteriously disappeared from the Surf House the year before. Clarke masterfully juggles dual timelines, revealing just enough to make each twist a complete surprise. The most remarkable part is that despite all the shocks and danger, The Surf House still totally makes us want to go hang on a beach in Morocco.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Plot contrivances and purple prose mar Clarke's latest standalone (after The Hike). While on a photo shoot in Marrakesh, frustrated fashion model Bea quits her job and rushes out of her hotel. She soon gets lost in Marrakesh's mazelike alleyways, where two men rob and prepare to sexually assault her. At the last minute, she's saved by a knife-wielding woman named Marnie, who helps Bea kill her attacker. The women flee the scene, and Bea accepts Marnie's offer of refuge at her guesthouse on the Moroccan coast. Their respite is soon threatened by a blackmailer, who claims to have recovered the bloody knife from the murder scene and demands thousands of dollars the women don't have to keep the weapon out of the hands of the police. Then a man named Seth Hart arrives at Marnie's guesthouse, offering a reward for information about his sister, Savannah, who vanished from the area a year earlier. As Bea digs further into Savannah's disappearance, Clarke reveals a flurry of secrets each character is hiding, which exhaust more often than they shock. Overwrought language ("they lose themselves in each other, while the stars spin above") doesn't help. This misses the mark.
