Iluka has been the only home that 18-year-old Ana has ever known. The beautiful wild pine plantation overlooking the Pacific Ocean where her grandfather builds furniture, her aunt runs an artists’ retreat and her uncle tends the land, is paradise – a private idyll safe from the outside world. But the place holds a violent secret and when a stranger arrives, Ana will need to make a choice: to protect everything – and everyone – she holds dear or tell the truth and destroy it all.
To the Sea is an atmospheric, suspenseful, dark and twisty thriller that fans of Daphne du Maurier, Paula Hawkins, Anna Downes and J.P. Pomare are sure to devour this summer. Nikki Crutchley has previously self-published three crime novels, all of which were set in New Zealand, where she lives. Her most recent novel, The Murder Club, was shortlisted for the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. With To the Sea, she is making her mark as a talented crime author to watch – this novel is at once transfixing, disturbing and chilling. It absolutely swept me up into the rugged coastal setting of Iluka, where one family’s isolated, secretive existence begins to slowly implode beneath them.
To the Sea moves between narrators and timelines, as the plot gradually thickens and builds to a suspenseful conclusion. Ana has grown up in Iluka knowing nothing other than her family, closed off to the outside world. Alternating chapters flash back to the perspective of her mother Anahita who began living there over twenty years ago. Layers of intrigue and violence propel this taut mystery. The arrival of Nikau, who stays in the artist’s retreat at Iluka, marks the beginning of the unravelling of the mystery. Nothing is as it seems, yet one thing is for sure: the beach, the ocean and Iluka itself are expertly portrayed here, unveiling the danger and secrets they hold. This is not the kind of beach I’d want to laze about on all summer!
Suspenseful, unique and evocative, Nikki Crutchley has crafted a gripping, page-turning thriller. If you’re looking for a dark and twisted read this summer, you can’t go past To the Sea.
Totally disagree. This is a turgid, predictable and depressing read. I wasted a few hours, hoping it would improve. Two dimensional characters and unlikely cult leanings. Yawn.