3.25 ⭐️

SALTWATER, the sophomore novel by Katy Hays, has plenty of rich people behaving badly. Richard Lingate’s wife Sarah was found dead in the waters below the cliffs of Capri, Italy, in 1992. It’s now 2022, and the family is back in Capri. Sarah’s daughter Helen, now an adult (she was 3 years old when Sarah died), is almost held as a captive of the family. After arriving, they find the necklace Sarah was wearing when she died. The family’s employee Lorna comes with them to Capri and disappears shortly thereafter.  

It was difficult to get invested in these characters. The reason why isn’t because they aren’t likeable, per se, because that doesn’t usually bug me. It was more that I didn’t build any connection with most of them. 

Like many stories with dual or multiple timelines, I was very interested in the oldest timeline (1992, in this case). I felt most empathy for Sarah and thought the author did a very good job of giving her an interesting storyline. Renata didn’t get much space in the pages, but she intrigued me as well. The brothers Richard and Marcus seemed rather indistinguishable from one another. Freddy didn’t seem to have much of a personality. Essentially, the men got shortchanged.

The setting is decent, and I think the pictures within the novel help the setting to come even more alive. (Putting a few of those pictures in the book probably was also a nice reason for the author to write off a trip to Italy.)

I would classify this as more of a slow burn suspense. I enjoyed it well enough for what it was. This would be a good beach read, but I wouldn’t recommend going in wanting more from it than that.  

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes March 25, 2025. 

 #saltwater #katyhays #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #bookstagram