The Thread: ‘Sea Wife’ a dark and thrilling read

Thrillers are perfect for the hot days and long twilight nights of summer. Our list so far includes the Ripley classics from Patricia Highsmith — starting with “The Talented Mr. Ripley” — and Kate Elizabeth Russell’s disturbing thriller, “My Dark Vanessa,” about a “Lolita”-like affair between a teacher and his student.  

This week, we’re boarding the “Juliet” with the Parlows, a couple with a fraying marriage who take their young children to sea on a sailboat for six months.  

From the beginning, author Amity Gaige drops clues that something dark awaits at the end of this sun-dazzled and idyllic adventure. Indeed, the book opens as wife Juliet Parlow asks, “Where does a mistake begin? Did my mistake begin with the boat? Or my marriage itself?”  And then, reader, it dawns on us that where four Parlows went to sea, only three returned. 

The narrative alternates between Juliet’s voice and her husband Michael’s. We eavesdrop on Michael’s frustration with Juliet’s dreaminess — she’s a poet, after all — and her slow adaptation to life at sea.   

We learn that Juliet is disappointed with her husband’s judgments and secretiveness. In fact, he’s bought the boat in a somewhat shady deal that he’s never explained to Juliet.   

I knew I’d love the travel and adventurousness of this novel, but I thought I’d be bored with the details of what it takes to actually get a sailboat from Point A to Point B.  But I wasn’t.

Gaige’s expertise about sailing never feels forced or academic. She actually learned to sail to write “Sea Wife!” Beyond that, there are wonderful, jewel-like moments of discovery as they linger in the beautiful, sometimes unnamed, isles of the Caribbean.

My Thread Thriller Must-Read this week is Amity Gaige’s “Sea Wife.”

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