One of the best books I have ever read!

Starts off a little slowly but then it grabs you and doesntt let go. Ten stars for plot, writing, characters, and for keeping me up until the early hours of the morning. Just couldn't put it down. Highly recommend!

Summer Camp - for me it was interesting as we do not do summer camps. You send children on school trips for the day and are very nervous till they return! the idea of sending them for weeks somewhere without parents is a little difficult to fathom or accept.

Joey Proctor was a little boy. Little in physique as well. Seemed to have been the ideal size for bullies. Alex Mason was the swimming coach himself just a young man. He was maybe a bit without empathy and only sought to make the boys tougher, and his one goal was that at the end of the camp he would make them swim. Whatever it took. This is what he did to Joey. He left him at the end of a raft hoping he would dive in and join the other boys. He never did. He disappeared. His body never found. Left to a ripple tide of effects felt far and wide.

We go fast forward twenty one years. Alex Mason is married, very rich, very well established in one of the biggest construction companies in his part of the world. He has two young children. Things start happening to him. His pool gets filled with blood tainted water with a slogan chiseled out at the bottom, he gets snapped feeling up a girl at a bar and the photos are sent to his wife, the locks in his so called unbreakable security system at home are broken and the intruder videos the whole family sleeping and sends it to them. All connected back to the disappearance of Joey Proctor. But, and this is a big but there are no demands. It seems like a slow process of breaking Alex Mason down. From his losing an employee (again the same swimming technique he used with Joey) because he thought the young Peter was actually Joey and then covering it up to look a suicide, to the murder of an old man on a visit to the camp who tried to insinuate that he knew exactly what had happened to the slow loss of his contracts to a competitor the whole situation breaks up both Alex and his marriage and you know this is not going to end well.
This was a creepy one because it was insidious, slow and vicious. I did not know who the perpetrator was till the end.

Good characterization. You tended to look on Alex with dislike not just because of what he did to Joey but he was callous and cold hearted and distant with everyone including his family.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Drowning.

I really wanted to read this book due to the premise. Who doesn't love a good revenge tale? I do!

** Minor spoilers ahead **

Twenty one years ago, at a summer camp, a boy named Joey was left alone on a dock to swim back to shore despite the fact that he was terrified of the water. When the teenage swimming instructor, Alex, remembered Joey hours later, he returned only to find the boy was gone. Joey was never found again.

As the years pass, Joey's disappearance is attributed to a local urban legend about a demented local man who lives in the woods and preys on boys every seven years.

We flash forward to the present day where Alex is now an arrogant, affluent, and adultering piece of crap. He's a hotshot real estate developer with a gorgeous wife, two great kids and influence. What more could he want?

Then, strange things begin to happen to this egotistical buffoon; harassment, business deals falling through, vandalism, that all point to Joey as the avenging angel out for justice.

Is Joey alive? And has he returned for revenge?

As Alex tries to hold onto his business and marriage, readers are treated to flashbacks where a dedicated detective investigates the cold case of the missing boy and a father and son hunting one day make a horrific discovery.

Alex probes into the camp's origins and what may have happened to Joey when he stumbles across a filmmaker working on a documentary about the camp, mainly Joey's disappearance and the local legend.

As events continue to unfold and the harassment becomes more pointed and harsher, Alex begin to lose his grip on reality, making ridiculous and callous decisions that call into question his sanity.

I love revenge stories, and this one wasn't bad.

Alex is no saint; actually, he doesn't have many redeeming qualities except for being good at his job, but that doesn't absolve him of his many, many flaws.

A heads up for those who don't like ambiguity and loose ends, you may not like The Drowning.

There are a lot of loose ends; not so much red herrings but nothing is fully explained or resolved and you wonder if the author threw these tidbits of information as a tease.

Is he trying to psych us out or Alex?

I don't mind ambiguity because, let's be real, sometimes life is ambiguous.

There are many unexplained events, disappearances, deaths, and sometimes, the real culprits are never caught, never brought to justice or we are left with measly bits of information that never paints a clear picture of what happened and everything remains unsolved.

This is that sort of book.

The author leaves us with these possibilities:

1. Is the detective real or not?

2. What is the significance of the grisly discovery made by the father and son hunters?

3. Is the urban legend real?

4. Who is that creepy local man Alex meets at the diner?

5. Does that creepy local have anything to do with Joey's disappearance?

There were a few moments of disbelief suspension that skewed very close to the borderline for me but I played along since Alex was teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown by that point.

Besides, he basically left a boy alone on a raft. Wouldn't he be capable of committing horrendous acts?

I guessed the twist and the villain reveal; its not difficult. The author gives a clue midway through the book that makes it pretty obvious who the culprit could be.

The conclusion is satisfying in that a revenge tale ends when the bad guy gets his comeuppance.

Loose threads can dangle; I just want Alex to get his just desserts and it was sweet.

Great premise but not the story I expected. It had a lot going on, multiple plot lines, and mainly despicable characters. It wraps up with some things unresolved. There is a decent story here and the writing is actually very good it maybe just tackled too much. I would try more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for a copy in exchange for a review.

I really couldn't put this book down! I love the way things aren't necessarily tied neatly together at the end, and leaves it up to the reader's imagination. Sometimes when authors do that it irks me, but I felt that it worked in this book.

A couple things I wasn't too sure on: without spoiling anything, I find it hard to believe that some of the events that happened wouldn't have been captured by the supposed best security system money can buy. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the way the author wrote the character of Ashley. No woman I know sleeps naked (eye roll), but I suppose in general I don't really care for the way male authors write female characters.

All in all, this was a great read and I highly recommend.

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

The Drowning can be summarized in one sentence: A summer camp ghost story turns into real-life terror for a former camp counselor. And, I enjoyed every page of J.P. Smith’s novel.

The Drowning is a well-written story of ego, revenge, regret and terror and the author does a fine job maintaining suspense throughout. While some of the characters are unlikable, there’s no denying that their personalities add a great deal to the development of the story and it’s unexpected ending. Well plotted and well written, this a book for anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller with a satisfying conclusion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

When the Author of this book was eight years old, he was left on a raft and told by a camp counselor that he had to either swim back (even though he did not know how to swim and was afraid of deep water) or stay on the raft and die. That memory stayed with him and became the inspiration for this novel.

Eight-year-old Joey Proctor has been taken to summer campy by his parents. It is his first time away from home and he is naturally nervous. Listening to the camp fire stories about an urban legend, John Otis, a man who abducts children from the camp every seven years, doesn't help to make the young campers feel safe.

One day at during swimming group, a swimming instructor named Alex, becomes frustrated with Joey's fear of the water and takes him out to a raft in the middle of the lake and leaves Joey there. Joey must either get over his fear of water and swim back to shore or stay on the raft. When Joey cannot be found later, a search goes underway but young Joey is never seen again.

Years later, Alex is living a very prosperous and successful life in Manhattan. He is married with a wife and two daughters. He wants what happened that summer to remain in the past but soon things begin happening in his life, things that bring up the past, things that make him question if Joey is still alive, if he is out there waiting and plotting revenge. Because if it's not Joey tormenting him and his family, then who? Why? A business rival? A spurned lover?

I found this book to be a fast read with some twists and turns. There are also some unanswered questions which some might find to be frustrating. There are some unanswered questions and I have mixed feelings about this. Overall, a very enjoyable psychological thriller which had me guessing and scratching my head all at the same time. There were some parts that had me wondering if I missed something and wondering was there going to be a part two to this book to answer some questions that remained. In the section of the book titled "A conversations with the Author", the author does state "I think it's best that each reader comes up with the answer that's most satisfactory to him or her."

For me this was great escapism reading on a rainy day.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Every summer camp has a ghost story. While Alex is working as a swimming instructor at a rural boys' camp, he hears the tale of John Otis, who is rumored to snatch one boy from the camp every seventh summer. It's a ridiculous story, clearly meant to rile up the campers.

The next day, an eight-year-old boy named Joey Proctor is in Alex's swimming group. Frustrated by Joey's fear of the water, Alex leaves him on a raft in the lake, tells him to swim back on his own, and storms off. Alex returns after nightfall to find the raft empty. Joey is never seen again.

Now, twenty-one years later, Alex is a wealthy Manhattan-based real estate developer with a trophy wife and two young daughters. But someone is after Alex—it seems Joey Proctor is back, and he wants revenge…**from Goodreads.com***

The Drowning is a who-dun-it following Alex, a rich and famous business man whose past comes back to haunt him. In the vein of Gone Girl, Smith weaves a tale that makes you both root for and against Alex. The book is well written, but with so many twists and turns I found myself having to go back to catch up. Definantly worth picking up.
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I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Decent psychological suspense book, but the characters are overall SO unlikable that it just soured the entire book reading experience for me. I wanted to have someone to root for. I disliked Alex from the beginning and although I should have reveled in his downfall, I couldn't because I didn't have anyone that I cared to champion.
I did like the mystery of it all, and it is a fairly fast-paced read. So if you're ok with ambiguous endings and not having everything solved, then this is a decent choice.

Spoilers below:

I didn't like that things weren't all solved in the end. There was a decent twist which I had kind of figured out, but some of the mystery threads were just left hanging and I hate it when that happens. I don't like loose ends. What was the deal with the hunters and the body they found? What exactly did the caretaker see? What is a plausible explanation for what happened to the kid?

I enjoyed this book so much! I couldn't put it down! The characters are well drawn and the story is mesmerizing. Alex is a swim instructor at a summer camp when he is 18 years old. He leaves an 8 year old boy on a raft who cannot swim and forgets about him. The boy is never seen again. Twenty-one years later Alex is a very successful real estate mogul in NYC when he believes that Joey is somehow still alive and is terrorizing him and his family.
I was surprised by the ending of the story and wished it had been a bit more definitive but because it wasn't it really makes the reader think about what happened.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes physiological thrillers.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my review.

TWO STARS

The opening of the book drew me in, with a classic summer camp feel complete with a ghost story of a child being snatched from the camp every seven years by a man in the woods. I was disappointed to find that the remainder of the book would not take place the nostalgic setting that captured my attention. Although the story does jump between a few storylines, the majority of the story follows Alex as an adult as he is tormented by what he believes to be Joey Proctor returning for his revenge. These events develop at a rapid pace, and leave little room for suspense or mystery. The events seemed a little far-fetched, and the narrative did not provide an opportunity for speculation that thrillers typically invite.

Although I enjoyed elements of this book, lacklustre twists and an unsatisfying ending prevent me from giving it a higher rating.

I received an ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story starts with a group of young boys sitting around a campfire. The cam counselors are also there .... telling the kids about an urban legend. A man would kidnap a child every 7 years.

That should be scary enough, but reality is much more frightening. Twenty years ago a camp counselor punished a young boy by putting him on a raft in the middle of the lake ... then promptly forgot all about him. The young boy disappeared, presumably drowned.

That brings the reader to the present. The camp counselor has made a great life for himself... he's wealthy, a beautiful home, a loving wife and children. But someone wants him to remember the little boy who drowned. Someone remembers the boy terror ..and wants the counselor to share in that terror today.

This is a dark psychological thriller, well-written, with finely drawn characters. The suspense starts on page 1 and doesn't let up until the very last page. The ending came as a surprise and I find myself still thinking about it.

I highly recommend THE DROWNING for anyone who likes psychological thrillers.

Many thanks to the author / SourceBooks Landmark / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of THE DROWNING. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I loved the storyline in this book and the characters were well developed. It kept a reasonable amount of suspense through the book. It was an OK read, however I really hated the ending it was very anticlimactic and it left a huge part of the plot unanswered. The way it ended did make that omission intentional but I disliked it, I was hoping for more. I also found the writing a little rough, I’m hoping the sentences with grammatical errors are just because this is a rough draft. If this is not due to it being a draft just FYI there are many sentences that don’t flow and make no sense. Also I have to add, Alex “prided” himself way to many times. It was somewhat overdone

First off, this was a fun, suspenseful book with a consistent plot. However, I had issues with two main things. The first was a suspension of disbelief and that was directly related to the writing style. I felt disconnected from the characters and I will follow the most unrealistic plot If I feel like it is true to the character, but I felt a disconnect from Alex and Alex from his actions. I guess the plot twist before it happened but that was past halfway, so I was ok with that. I would recommend it for a suspenseful weekend read but not if you want to be blown away by the writing or character development. Trigger warning for discussion of pedophiles, domestic abuse, suicide and sexual harassment.

My first book of 2019 was the terrifying The Drowning from J.P. Smith. Like most summer camps, there is a story of a scary man in the woods, who is going to take one of the campers. And usually, they are just that, stories. Except for Joey Proctor. He went to camp and never came back.

Alex was a teenage swim instructor who left Joey on a raft, and forgot about it. Joey was never seen again. 21 years later - Alex is a successful real estate developer with everything, a beautiful wife, kids and a flashy career. Except now...Joey is back.

I HATE using "twists and turns" when writing about books, but this book is full of them. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone has something to gain. Who is haunting Alex? Where is Joey?

Thanks to NetGalley, J.P. Smith, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Drowning, J. P. Smiths' seventh novel to date, is a dark and murky psychological thriller. It explores the propensity for a deep, dark secret buried long ago, and stored like all our repressed memories in the most inaccessible depths of our brain so as not to hurt us, to reappear. Sometimes they stay buried the way you want them to, but most of the time they resurface unannounced in a spectacular fashion causing a myriad of unwanted consequences. Although Smith uses well-recognised tropes here, he does so in a unique and refreshing way. However, there is one certainty, when the full extent of Alex's heartless, cruel to be kind, action or more correctly, omission (inaction) comes to light nothing will be the same again for all of those involved.

This is a solid read that has all of the component parts making it a compelling and suspenseful story, so much so that I forgot and burned my dinner as I feverishly turned the pages. Being a law graduate the many questions surrounding the issues of culpability and negligence, as well as a the moral standpoints e.g. legal concerns v moral concerns of the plot gave me plenty of food for thought. Like most readers I expected most of my answers to be addressed towards the back end of the novel, so I indeed enjoyed the fact that Smith didn't spell everything out or tie it all up conveniently in a bow. It'll stay with me for quite some time I suspect. So if you like questions to ponder or ruminate on this is a highly entertaining and immersive mystery thriller which poses some thought-provoking and intriguing questions.

Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for an ARC.

Wow! Fantastic book. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. Every parents worst nightmare gets worse when a young boy of 8 disappears at summer camp. As troubled relationship of the parents unfold and you find out how unhappy the young boys life was. Did the negligence of one of the camp counselors cause this disappearance or was there someone watching the camp that caused this terrifying twist of fate. Fast forward 21 years later and the former arrogant counselor is super successful and facing a chain of events that will cause him to face what he may have caused years ago. Unique, strongly written mystery. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

A dark mystery with such great character development! The mystery is nothing like I've read about before, which had me hooked from the beginning!