I'm not sure that I'd call this book a mystery / thriller per se. Sure, there was a dead body, and no one knew who it was or why it happened, but the bulk of the story was about the family drama of the two families sharing the villa where they find the body. However, just because I didn't really find it to be a mystery or a thriller I still really enjoyed it. The story was interesting, the writing was decent, and I never lost interest in what was going on even if it wasn't the thrilling read I had expected. It was well paced and a quick read and while I wouldn't necessarily read this book again again, I would read more books by this writer.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Two sisters and their families meet for a French vacation following the death of their mother. When 7 year old little Jimmy goes in the backyard of the vacation home, he sees a dead man floating in the pool. This is where the mystery, suspense, thriller ends.

I will say that I went into this book thinking it was a thriller, but it is not. It’s actually a pretty humorous take on vacationing with your family. There’s nothing really notable that happens outside of the dead body in the pool, but it’s still an enjoyable read.

I listened to the audiobook of this and was happy I did. The narrator was excellent at changing her voice for each character and kept me entertained throughout.

The story did not receive a higher rating from me, because I really wanted more information about all of the side stories going on. I got a 2 second glimpse of each person, but not much more. I also found all of the characters to be pretty unlikeable, even Jimmy. I know, I know…but I just couldn’t handle his obnoxiousness.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Pool is a classic example of a book that fully draws me in with the summary but then never executes to get me invested. Two sisters who were never close decided to rent a house together to get their families together after the passing of their mother. When they arrive they find a dead body floating in the pool. When the news spreads they are the center of attention and are always in the center of the crime scene. This sounds great and I was excited.

The story was not long but I felt it dragged on. This was supposed to be a mystery but there was no mystery to be had at all. This was just a family drama, which is not a problem, but it is a problem when you go into a story expecting a mystery.

The other problem was the characters. In this whole story, not one character was redeemable or likable, not even the kids. I want to try another book by the author because I hope it was just the book that was missing it for me and not the author.

Narrated by Esther Wane ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stunning voice

Story by Sarah Edghill ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me be very clear, this three stars is ONLY if you are picking this book up as general fiction. If you are picking this book up as a mystery thriller put it back down immediately and move on. There is NOTHING thrilling or mysterious about this story.

Now that I've got that out of the way this story was only just OK as a general fiction/ family drama book. Nothing really happens and it's not a family that will leave you feeling good. If I was reading it I don't think I would have actually finished it but honestly it was the Narrators soothing voice that made me keep listening.

First time trying this author and can't say I'd be in a hurry to try another book by her.

When two families are basically guilted into taking a holiday together in the French country side, all parties are hopeful that it won’t be THAT bad. However, when they show up there is a dead body in the pool.

This is one of those books that sound so interesting with a great plot but at the end I dont know what the plot was. I thought this story was more of a general fiction story than anything. I am not sure what qualifies a book to be included in the thriller genre but I don’t think this one should be. I think I would have liked this book a lot more if I went in thinking its only a general fiction story. With that said, I thought it was a fun story. Interest family dynamics. I think because I thought this was more of a thriller, I was pretty sure the killer was going to be the weird little boy… (hahaha) If you enjoy stories more about characters and relationships than plot, I think you will like this book! It would be a great summer beach read!

I received the audio version of this book and the narrator is Esther Wane. I liked her voice for this story overall. Her voices for the cast of characters was impressive.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook of The Pool! Out Tuesday, June 5th!

I'd really like to give this book a 3.5 star rating. I don't find it a 4, but I think it's better than a 3 for sure. I really like the title and the way it tied everything together. I saw some feedback on this book that some folks were put off by the description of a murder, or a body being found, and felt like it didn't relate to the book. I thought it was a wonderful choice. I walk away from this book wondering who the man in the pool is, I have my suspicions but I'm not sure I'm right. Wonderful narrator, 10/10 on their narration.

2⭐
Genre ~ domestic drama
Setting ~ France
Publication date ~ June 5, 2024
Est Page Count ~ 276 (31 chapters)
Audio length ~ 7 hours 51 minutes
Narrator ~ Esther Wane
POV ~ single 3rd
Featuring ~ family drama up the yang, secrets

Don’t be fooled by the dead body talk in the blurb like I was. This is full on family drama, not a murder mystery.

Hannah and her immediate family are vacationing with her sister and her family. When they arrive at the villa they discover a body floating in the pool.

While the body is discussed quite frequently it still takes a back seat to major family drama. Maybe it’s my fault, but when I saw the discovery of a dead body in the pool written in the blurb I stopped reading because I love when dead bodies are discovered, so I thought I’m in for a great murder mystery. Big nope!

Not one character is likable and they all bugged me at one point or another. I suppose little 7 year old Jimmy was fine~ish with his innocence, but he doesn’t make great choices. The teenage girls are unbearable. There’s tension with the adults. None stop bickering back and forth, awful things were said to each other and about others. Just too much family drama for me.

They’re British, but in France and only one of them knows how to speak French, so it's spoken quite a few times and then it’s translated for everyone else. Although that's great so we're not lost, it still really bogged down the story for me.

Overall, not for me, but if you know it’s a family drama going into it maybe you’ll enjoy it more than me.

Narration notes:
So overall she did fine. She gave each character their own voice, but some really grated on my nerves.

Title: The Pool
Author: Sarah Edghill
Format: 🎧
Audiobook Narrator: Esther Wane
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Audiobook Release Date: June 5, 2024
My Rating: 3.4 Stars
Pages 276

Sisters Lizzie and Hannah have never been close but following the death of their mother, Jean; who had a desire that they vacation with their families together!!
Hannah does the research on-line and finds a 4-bedroom villa in a remote area of the South of France. The photos look perfect.
Hannah and her family arrive first and find the area is more beautiful than the photos. However they no soon enter the home and discover a body floating in the pool! The children are using the leaf skimmer to poke at him- it appears the body is that of a man.
Thus is the beginning of the world's worst holiday.
The media gets wind of the death and reporters become annoying. The families stress level is at a peak. There is chaos and a very strained relationship develops between the adults –Hannah, Nic, Lizzie, and Marcus as well as their teenage daughters Alice age fourteen and Susie fifteen

Jimmy, Hannah’s seven year-old son remains himself with his little boy self and makes comments which in many cases are gross but humorous.

The narrator Ester Wane did a great job in performing the characters.
However, I did find these characters unlikeable with so many unnecessary expletives.
However the story had me curious.

The cover is great but the pool isn’t the big issue in this story.
This dysfunctional group dominates it.
They reach their lowest with name calling and shouting at each other ~ perhaps because they realize they have one day left in the villa and want to get out everything that has bothered them for the past many years!
I started the reviewed before I was finishing and was ready to give it 2 stars.
Glad I hung in there as the ending saved this story- . . .

Want to thank NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this early Audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for June 5, 2024.

Publication date: June 5th, 2024
Page number: -
Audio length: 7 hours 51 minutes
Narrator: Esther Wane
Genre: fiction
POV: fractured family
Setting: isolated French villa

My review is colored by the assumption that I made- based upon the summary and the print on the cover that this was going to be a mystery/thriller, instead of a genre that I don’t enjoy. This was more of a book about estranged sisters and their fractured families.

Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced audio copy. This is an honest voluntary review.

What a vacation! Hannah and Lizzie are two totally different people who happen to be sisters. They are practically forced to vacation together with their families when their mother bequest an amount of money for them to spend time together. Hannah finds a glorious French home but the vacation immediately goes wrong from the get go with the discovery of a dead body in the pool.

It was a really great story- I enjoyed it immensely. I think the end could have been a bit more thrilling - the dead body was in many ways not used to it's full potential. To be honest, I also think the people should have tried better to get along. That's my personal opinion of course :)

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC! This book is really hard for me to rate. I think I would have liked this story a lot more if I would have read it rather than listened to it. I did not enjoy the voices - especially the children's voices. From the description and the cover, I was expecting a murder mystery book and it is not that. It is a family drama. If I would have known that going in, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Still, it was a good read.

Thank you Netgalley and Sarah Edghill for the opportunity to listen to this ARC.

After their mother passes, Lizzie and Hannah decide to try and mend their sisterhood by taking a family vacation.
When the families arrive at their vacation house in France, disaster strikes when they find a body floating in their pool. Can their family put their personal drama aside to survive more scandal?


The Pool sounded very intriguing to me so I was super excited to read it! I feel like the description was a little misleading. The book was more about their own personal drama ( which was still interesting) than it was about the mystery of the body. I feel like it was well written and enjoyed the narrator, but wish there was more about the mystery of the body in the story. Solid 3 star read for me and I look forward to checking out more of Sarah's work!

This was an interesting and well written family drama story. I had thought this book would concentrate a little more on the murder (or accident?) mystery of a man found dead in the pool of the extended family's vacation rental house, and I was a bit surprised when the story kind of abruptly ended without a clear resolution. (I listened to the audiobook so the fact that the ending was approaching wasn't as obvious to me.) Still, it was multi-faceted and I enjoyed it. My favorite character was the 7-year old son, Jimmy, who remained charming and funny throughout. The narrator was absolutely excellent, and was pitch-perfect not only with the voices of the adults, but also delivered Jimmy's voice beautifully. Many narrators seem not to be able to do children's voices without giving them a whiny or otherwise irritating quality, so the fact that narrator Esther Wane accomplished this so masterfully really impressed me. Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for an audio e-ARC of this book.

🎧🎧 Book Review 🎧🎧 If you are craving a dream vacation to a villa in France full of thrills and mystery but have not yet been able to decide the exact manner in which you want to experience your holiday gone totally awry, Sarah Edgill’s new novel, The Pool, will fit the bill for a perfect escape (without the dead body in the pool). As always, Edgill perfectly balances a gripping plot with emotive characters that are incredibly relatable. Readers will laugh and cry along with this family as they tackle grief from losing their matriarch, the mystery of a dead body in the pool, struggling to patch together their French language skills, and a myriad of other totally normal human emotions. The Pool is beautifully written and narrated and the perfect read to enjoy on your summer adventures, a must read!

Oh how I loved this one! It isn't so much as mystery as it is a little domestic tale with a corpse. We never really get into how or why but it doesn't matter. The story is about vacation drama with family. The protagonist is judging her sister, her brother in law, and her niece, but they are doing the same to her. Everyone is keeping secrets.
Her husband is dealing with repercussions of an accident that is potentially going to ruin his career, the youngest child is a cheeky little shit, and the two girls are clashing. Meanwhile, there is a corpse in the holiday house pool and they have cops just coming around bothering everyone. I was surprised they did not demande their money back, but they start off determined to make this vacation together work. We get more details about why later.
I felt for the protagonist even though I did not think she was being very nice.
I LOVED the narration. The voices were perfect! She nailed the french cop voice.

Packed with hilarious, larger than life (but still relatable) characters, THE POOL is a found-family roma— wait, no—murder thriller. Jimmy is delightful! Edghill really nailed the ‘weird kid’ vibes.

Premise - two British sisters who try, but often fail, to like each other go on vacation in France, along with their messy families. The trip over is tough but when they arrive at the (free!) dream vacation house, they’re sure things are turning around… until little Jimmy finds a man floating in the pool. Shenanigans ensue!

This was light-hearted and yet thrilling and well-paced all the same - my perfect mix! I love domestic monotony set against a very non-monotonous scenario with high stakes. This delivers all of that!

Thanks, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC

A fun and gripping thriller about two sisters coping after their mother's death when they get caught up in a media storm because of a dead body. The sisters interactions and relationship was so interesting to follow. The secrets they kept that kept unfurling and the mystery that lingered in the background. I really liked the book and the narrator did a great job