Dark Family/ Business Drama. This is one of those books with a wildly atmospheric setting – a short sail on dad’s megayacht over to Catalina Island and back, during which storms both literal and personal envelop the entire family. If you need likeable characters or levity… there isn’t any modicum of that to be found here. This is dark, gets darker, and right when you think it can’t possibly get any darker… goes nearly as dark as it can without involving kids or genocide or some such. It is a story where yet again Tony Stark’s like about Nick Fury in The Avengers comes to bear: “his secrets have secrets”… and this is true of pretty well every single person on the boat, as we’ll find out by the end of this tale. This is absolutely one where your own feelings about dialog and situations may vary, but I for one didn’t see anything “objective-ish” wrong with them, so I’m not going to fault the tale or the author here. I’m simply noting I’ve seen that complaint in other reviews, and I could see where that argument could potentially be made, but I personally didn’t feel they were. Ultimately an interesting tale, one near perfect for a dark stormy night where you don’t want an actual horror-type tale, but you do what to have a minor sense of suspense and foreboding, perhaps with a nice wine or beer. Very much recommended.
This review of Beneath The Surface by Kaira Rouda was originally written on September 3, 2023.
