Ghosting

September 6, 2010
Successful neurosurgeon Jack Scales, self-centered and oblivious, sets out with his reluctant wife, teenage daughter, and college-age son on what's intended to be a triumphant cruise aboard his motorized sailboat, Slow Dance, from Long Island to Bermuda in this trite story of outrage and punishment from Poyer (The Crisis). The overconfident, inexperienced sailor shrugs off advice, unaware that his wife loves another man or how unprepared he is for the realities of the sea. A lethal accident is only the first calamity to disrupt the voyage; Slow Dance later nearly sinks in bad weather. When a moment of misguided charity leaves the Scaleses in the hands of a gang of bloodthirsty pirates, the family's survival depends on Jack's limited cunning. Poyer relies on graphic scenes of violence, murder, and rape as well as on moral clichés familiar from action movies, even providing closure with a comforting final moral that contradicts all he has shown us.

September 1, 2010

Dr. Jack Scales is the cocky novice captain of a newly purchased, high-end yacht not designed for ocean travel. With little seamanship experience, he takes his dysfunctional family on a weeklong sail from Long Island to Bermuda. His wife is on the cusp of leaving him for a younger lover; his bipolar son, Rick, stops taking his medication, and the voices in his head get louder; and Haley is a rebellious teenager who just wants to get this vacation over with. As they leave, a dark omen begins the trip in peril, and the family must unite to survive a vicious storm. Celebrating their narrow escape, they find a man adrift who leads them to a ring of drug smugglers who will do anything to take over the yacht. VERDICT In a change of pace from his Dan Lenson naval technothrillers (e.g., The Weapon), Poyer draws on his nautical expertise to create a thrilling and disturbing portrait of what people will do when they have nothing else to lose. This dynamic sea thriller casts plot twists, conflict, and fear into the dark waves of uncertainty and will appeal to fans of Charles Williams's Dead Calm.--Ron Samul, New London, CT

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