The Woman in Cabin 10 is a
Mystery Fiction novel by Ruth Ware that takes place on a cruise ship. Laura "Lo" Blacklock is a travel journalist who is given the assignment of writing about a new Norwegian cruise while her boss takes maternity leave. However, excitement turns to terror when Lo swears she saw a woman thrown overboard. The problem is, nobody will believe her as all the crew and passengers remain accounted for. Is Lo going crazy, or did something really happen?
The Woman in Cabin 10 provides examples of:
- Cassandra Truth: Lo swears she saw someone get thrown overboard, but nobody believes her.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Carrie is forced by Lord Bullmer to assume his wife Anne's identity after killing her.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Lo lampshades this as she wonders whether the guy who finds her in the barn will hurt her.
There was something reassuring about the photos of his wife and grandchildren - but even rapists and killers had grandkids, right?
- Heel–Face Turn: Carrie (who helped Lord Bullmer kill his wife) decides to help Lo escape.
- Heroic BSoD: Lo has a couple of these. The fact that she often suffers from panic attacks doesn't help.
- Hope Spot: After the events on the boat, Lo tries to get help from the nearby hotel after jumping ship, telling them to call the police, despite Carrie telling her to explicitly not do this as Bullmer has favors with the police force and others. The first person the hotel staff call is Bullmer, and Lo has to hightail it and avoid any cops that spot her along the way.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Happens to Lo a lot early on, especially given her alcoholism.
- Inheritance Murder: Lord Bullmer's billionaire wife Anne has cancer but suddenly receives a promising prognosis. Richard doesn't want to wait and decides to kill her instead.
- The Insomniac: Lo initially has trouble sleeping unless she drinks alcohol.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Lars' comment on the absurdity of Lo's situation.
"Good Lord. It's like something out of a novel."
- My God, What Have I Done?: Carrie, after realizing Anne may not have been dead when she threw her overboard. Confirmed true when the autopsy reveals that Anne had drowned.
- Groin Attack: Ben winds up on the receiving end of one after drunkenly groping Lo.
- Never Found the Body:
- While a body is found early on after Lo is reported missing, it is not confirmed to be hers.
- Later, Lo mentions that she never saw Carrie's body as she escaped.
- Never Suicide: Lord Bullmer is found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the police later retract the statement. It's heavily implied that Carrie killed him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Lord Bullmer seems to be the only person who takes Lo's report seriously. It turns out he's the Big Bad.
- Red Herring: There are quite a few. The behavior of several characters make Lo suspicious of them before the actual killer is found.
- Ben's odd behavior, including lying about his alibi (never leaving the room with the other men playing pool) and confirming he can't place the other people as definitely not entering her room during that time because of it, and spilling everything to the head of the wait staff, makes Lo think for a brief time that he could be the murderer or an accomplice. The opposite is true; he was the first one to raise any alarm bells and get the police involved after Lo went missing.
- It's stated early on that one of the girls is really good at makeup and that it can make someone look like an entirely different person. This girl has nothing to do with the murder or its related cover-up; it's an entirely different person pulling a Dead Person Impersonation.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Carrie warns Lo that Lord Bullmer has many friends in high places.
