The Lost Swimmer in Aussie Readers

Mar 05, 2015 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors, 2015-release, net-galley, read-on-kindle, thriller, suspense, own-read, arc

Australian archaeology professor Rebecca Wilding loved her job at Coastal University in Victoria; she had travelled widely with her work and particularly loved the digs in Athens. As Head, she was in charge of a large number of staff and was feeling the pressure from Priscilla, the Dean over cuts as they were over budget. But when serious discrepancies showed up in the financials with Rebecca’s signature attached to the forms, she was shattered. She knew she had done no wrong but the deepening i Australian archaeology professor Rebecca Wilding loved her job at Coastal University in Victoria; she had travelled widely with her work and particularly loved the digs in Athens. As Head, she was in charge of a large number of staff and was feeling the pressure from Priscilla, the Dean over cuts as they were over budget. But when serious discrepancies showed up in the financials with Rebecca’s signature attached to the forms, she was shattered. She knew she had done no wrong but the deepening investigation continued…

Rebecca and her husband Stephen had organised a working holiday to travel to Greece, Italy and Paris; both were to deliver papers in various cities and agreed that combining a holiday would bring them closer together. Rebecca had recently begun suspecting Stephen of having an affair but she had no proof – she hoped the holiday would return to her the Stephen she once knew. Not having told Stephen of the investigation against her, she had hopes of clearing her name while away – but it seemed they both had secrets they were keeping from one another…

The hotel they were staying in on the beautiful Amalfi Coast was serene; the relaxing atmosphere and closeness to The Parthenon meant they spent their days sightseeing and relaxing. But Stephen seemed tense and uptight; and he wouldn’t tell her what was bothering him. One afternoon Rebecca slept while Stephen headed off to have a relaxing swim in the calm waters at the hotel’s beach – in a heartbeat Rebecca’s life became a frenzy of pain, panic, hope and fear…

As Rebecca’s terror built to a crescendo, she felt trapped by events that were out of her control; with time not on her side, she knew she had to unearth the dark secrets that had been following both her and Stephen during their travels as well as while they were on home soil. But in her dazed and exhausted state, could Rebecca find the answers she sought? Could she clear her name? And would she find her beloved husband once again?

What an excellent debut novel by Aussie author Ann Turner! Tense and gripping, the pace was incredibly fast – it was hard to put down. The Lost Swimmer is a compelling and emotional read that engrossed me completely. A highly suspenseful thriller, I have no hesitation in recommending The Lost Swimmer very highly.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
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Mar 08, 2015 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, arc-are, aussie-author

The Lost Swimmer is a low key psychological thriller from debut author Ann Turner.

University department Head Rebecca Wilding is under extraordinary pressure both professionally and personally. Accused of embezzlement by a hostile colleague and fretting about her husband's increasingly odd behaviour, she hopes that she can resolve both situations during a long planned overseas trip. Instead, Rebecca finds herself in the midst of a crisis when the she becomes the target of the fraud investigation ...more

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Aug 23, 2015 Michael Livingston rated it did not like it

This did nothing for me - poorly developed characters, implausible relationships and a pretty ludicrous plot that is mostly just red herrings and stressing out. The weirdly aggressive minor characters scattered throughout Italy were super weird as well - anyway, can't win them all I guess. ...more

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Apr 12, 2015 Tracey rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, mystery, fiction, 2015, netgalley

Rebecca Wilding is in the prime of her life where everything should be perfect, she has a great job, wonderful husband, adult kids and the perfect beach house. Yet slowly everything begins to unravel, the university she works at is facing cutbacks, she is at loggerheads with the dean, she faces allegations of fraud and the possibility her husband is having an affair.

Travelling from Australia to Europe for work Rebecca and her husband Stephen try to reconnect but deception and paranoia weighs th ...more

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May 23, 2015 Bree T rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, aww2015

Rebecca Wilding is an archaeologist professor working at a university on the south east coast of Australia. She’s Head of her School in the Faculty of Arts and the position is not without its problems, including a very hostile Dean of Arts. The Dean has been going behind Rebecca’s back to offer redundancy packages to Rebecca’s valued staff and slowly isolating her from all of her supporters. And soon she’s pulled into open-ended mediation with the Dean. Rebecca’s situation goes from grim to much Rebecca Wilding is an archaeologist professor working at a university on the south east coast of Australia. She’s Head of her School in the Faculty of Arts and the position is not without its problems, including a very hostile Dean of Arts. The Dean has been going behind Rebecca’s back to offer redundancy packages to Rebecca’s valued staff and slowly isolating her from all of her supporters. And soon she’s pulled into open-ended mediation with the Dean. Rebecca’s situation goes from grim to much, much worse when she’s accused of a major fraud.

As well as that, Rebecca has to face the fact that she believes – no, she knows that her husband Stephen is having an affair. As the investigation for the fraud gets underway, Rebecca and Stephen fly to Europe for a planned holiday. It’s fortuitous as it gives Rebecca the opportunity to begin digging around into who might be attempting to frame her in terms of the fraud but she frustratingly finds herself blocked at every turn.

And then on the Amalfi Coast, Stephen disappears. And the police suspect that Rebecca has murdered him.

I’m actually rather torn on this book. On one hand, it’s got all the things that should’ve been an instant winner for me. The setting – first the southern coast of Victoria, later Greece and Italy – as well as the exploration of the fraud and Rebecca and Stephen’s marriage and the intricacies within. Not to mention that Rebecca’s career is pretty fascinating and there’s a lot of little tidbits about archaeology and the politics of the faculty at university. However, there were some pretty big issues for me, regarding the story itself.

Firstly – it feels rather slow. It’s not a very long book and Stephen doesn’t vanish until the second half of it. It seems to take an extraordinary amount of time to get to that section of the story and some of the first half of the book feels a bit unnecessary. I’m not sure that Rebecca and Stephen have enough real interactions, I know they have been married for a long time, but I’d have liked more on Rebecca’s thoughts about Stephen having an affair. More about why she thought that, more about how she felt about it.

Rebecca is a very passive character, in all aspects of her life it seems. She knows that the Dean of Arts is difficult – she’s already in mediation with all of the other Heads of Schools apart from Rebecca. She knows that her position is going to be hard to hold onto, that she’s going to have to fight and be assertive and have all her ducks lined up in a row, all her facts to hand. The fraud coming out is unfortunate, because it gives the Dean obvious ammunition but even before that the Dean was already significantly hostile towards her and I wanted a bit more about that too. Rebecca does an awful lot of nothing, but I think part of this was because the way in which the character of the Dean, Pamela was written, it gave Rebecca quite little course of action in retaliation. Which brings me to my next issue, that of Pamela herself.

She’s everything I loathe in a female character that’s supposed to be an antagonist and everything that feels well, a bit two dimensional. That female career woman who wraps the male heads of authority around her finger, is hostile towards other women that she works with, who exists merely to be as difficult as she possibly can to the main character. A lot of the time there felt no real reasoning for Pamela’s actions until very late in the novel (and that’s only my guess at the reasoning for some of her actions) and it felt really like the easy way out. There was no depth or complexity to Pamela’s character and considering she takes up a rather large part of the story, I felt as though there really should’ve been much more to her. Even the scene between her and Rebecca almost at the end of the novel lacked the punch it needed.

I did enjoy the fraud part of the plot – I found it quite interesting in terms of how accounts for universities work and how trips and funding is organised, etc although I did find it surprising (and possibly implausible?) that Rebecca was allowed to leave the country whilst the investigation was going on. Rebecca probably made a rather good scapegoat merely because she’s both trusting and passive although to be honest I don’t think it would have occurred to anyone to be watchful of people attempting to frame you for fraud. I did admire her for attempting to investigate herself although I could also see that from the point of view of those investigating, it could also be misconstrued as attempting to hide and/or destroy any evidence. The mystery (well two mysteries really) with Stephen was also interesting as well but it also left me wanting a bit more.

The writing is lovely, descriptive and lyrical and I loved the scenery of Greece and Italy, particularly the lovingly described drive down the Amalfi coast. But although the novel felt a bit like it was supposed to be a bit of a thriller, that it was building up in the same sort of way, it never really paid off and the ending kind of fizzled out into something that didn’t feel all that satisfying or thrilling. ...more

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