ooo, this was so satisfying. Gorgeous location, wealthy family, and possible murder, oh my! An annual trip to Capri on the date of Sarah Lingate's death is surrounded by suspicion of the cause of her untimely death. It was ruled that she committed suicide, but if you listen to local gossip, her husband Richard did it.

The Lingate family is very private about their affairs. A close look at all the members and staff on this last trip shows how compliant they are to make sure nothing about them goes public. Imagine Sarah as a talented writer, is about to publish a book, but the characters are eerily similar to the Lingates. She turns up dead and people close to the family are hell bent to uncover the truth and getting there is suspenseful that the book never left my side.

Katy Hays did an excellent job describing the beautiful island of Capri with its rugged landscape and sailing in sparkling waters. Along with the luxurious lifestyle of bottomless bottles of wine and afternoon Aperol Spritzes.

Read this for a good thriller and go on a vacation to Capri. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an early copy.

The vibes reminded me of white lotus and the drama reminded of the TV show Revenge with its twists and mysteries. It felt disjointed at times withe the multiple povs and the back and forth between past and present but i think it pays off in the end.

Would not be surprised if this ends up being adapted into a limited series.

As the author states in her acknowledgements, sophomore novels can be difficult to write, and as a reader, I find myself frequently less than impressed by an author's second published work. That is not the case for Saltwater by Katy Hays, as this novel absolutely blew me away from the first chapter! When Sarah Lingate's body is found beneath the cliffs in Capri in the summer of 1992, the police are quick to accept that her fall was a tragic accident, possibly a suicide. The family returns every summer to keep up appearances, and 30 years later things start to fall apart when Sarah's missing necklace is delivered to the house.

The story is told from multiple pov, and in a dual timeline format. The characters are, without exception, despicable people, which gives the entire novel a 'who can you trust, everyone is lying about something' vibe. I always enjoy a thriller with rich people behaving badly, and Saltwater has that in large doses. I also love a good twist, and this novel has several that absolutely shocked me and though they stretched the bounds of believability, it was so much fun I will forgive the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for the digital ARC of Saltwater by Katy Hays. The opinions in this review are my own

In 1992, Helen's mother plummeted to her death off the cliffs
of Capri. Her wealthy family was cleared of any wrongdoing in
the matter and defiantly return to the island each year for
vacation. Helen, desperate to get out from under her father's
control, hatches a plan with the family's assistant Lorna to snag
some of the family's millions for their own. But everyone, it
seems, has a secret of their own, and this summer in Capri, all
the lies begin to unravel.


This is no popcorn thriller, my book friends,; rather, it is a layered,
delicious tiramisu. The characters are well-developed, the
setting is brilliantly atmospheric, and the plot weaves in
unexpected directions. The final twist was a bit over the top, but
I swallowed it anyhow. The multiple narrators help distinguish
the different POVs well in the audioversion; sometimes, in the
book, their voices weren't quite distinct enough for me to keep
them straight.

Twisty, complex, layered. The plot revolves around the richer than rich Lingate family and wrestles with the question of what's more important, the truth or the family. The motto has always been to protect the family at all costs. The family is always greater than the sum of its parts. Then comes Helen who is not sure that's how it should be.

This is definitely a slow burn, a little lengthy at times but once it starts rolling, it really takes off. For me this is a reader's book. It's not for the casual book club attendee; it's for those that really love the rich and complicated stories that make you wait for the payout. I'd definitely recommend to my domestic suspense friends that are willing to hang in there and be rewarded in the end.

This was a book where I struggled a little bit with the first half of the book, but the second half was so twisted and delightful that I was glad that I kept reading. I loved that this book is told in the past and the present and has three different narrators. I feel like having those different perspectives really allowed the reader to see how twisted the family dynamic truly is. I don’t blame Helen for wanting to escape the crazy that is her family. This is one of those stories you must read to believe.
Thank you so much to Random House publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I've been ruminating on this review for a full 24 hours because I have been feeling absolutely FLABBERGASTED by the ending. I typically pride myself on being able to catch clues and pick up on foreshadowing, but Saltwater bamboozled me not once, not twice, but THRICE. THRICE Katy Hays managed to make me choke on the bowl full of plantain chips I was trying to enjoy while finishing this book because I was so absolutely blindsided. I find myself immediately wanting to start from the beginning to see what I possibly could have missed that hinted at the outcome of this story.

There is not a singular "good" person in this story, and that's what makes it so DELICIOUS. This is not a spoiler, but one of my favorite quotes from the book is, "We are always both people...the person who loves and the person who does terrible things." THEY ARE ALWAYS BOTH PEOPLE. This comes back time and time again as we peak into the lives of the Lingates, both past and present.

The duality of time on top of the multiple POV's provided in Saltwater is *chef's kiss* and I want more. I haven't read The Cloister yet, but you better believe I am picking that up ASAP if it is by Katy Hays since I am so enthralled with Saltwater!

On a final note, I have absolutely NO desire to vacation in Capri. Ever. The whole of Italy isn't ruined, but the cliffs of Capri definitely are.

Whoa. This book was so slow in parts and so long. At one point in my reading I wondered if it was ever going to end or make sense in my head. The ending was quite the surprise and redeemed the slog of words I had to endure to get there.

The Lingate family is notorious on the island of Capri after Sarah Lingate was found dead at the bottom of the cliffs of their vacation home in 1992. They've returned to the island every year since as a testament to their innocence, but the police and residents aren't so sure and neither is Helen Lingate, Sarah's daughter. Thirty years later, she enlists the help of her uncle's assistant, Lorna, to try to discover the truth of what really happened. The necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died reappears and then Lorna disappears, leaving Helen to try to solve the mysteries on her own.

I did enjoy the Italian setting, especially the luxurious parties and houses, but that was the only thing I enjoyed. The characters fell flat for me, especially Helen, who was the main narrator. There were some perspectives from Sarah's point of view in 1992 that I did like and allowed the reader to learn more about the family. Mostly it felt like each character had one defining characteristic and that was it for the story. This was also a really slow burn, which I wasn't expecting. There wasn't much mystery solving and it didn't really get thrilling until the last little bit of the story. I was enjoying the end of the book until there were a couple of twists that were just too difficult to believe. I think someone who has a good ability to suspend disbelief and enjoys rich people behaving poorly would like this one.

The beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea. A wonderful island, Capri. A wealthy family with dark secrets. Murder for nearly 30 years ago. And it all crashes together with the daughter of the victim wants answers. To start with, the plot was superb and the ending was so twisty I could never have guessed all the things going on. I really enjoyed the different perspectives with each chapter.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC. Helen is in search of the truth of her Mothers death 30 years ago on the island of Capri. The Lingate family is old money and the family sticks with family and Helen cannot figure out if her mother’s death was a murder or a suicide, no one is talking. Finding a way to uproot the truth and make her own money she has a plan to flush it out with a friend, her only friend. This book has a duel timeline and different POV covering the 30 years. None of the characters were likeable and for me it was hard to keep picking it up to go on. The 1 twists at the end was too fantastical that really would be best left out that bordered on the absurd!

There is not a lot I can say about this book without divulging spoilers, so I'll keep it fairly short and sweet.

Saltwater contains an insane amount of moving parts. With 4+ POVs over two separate timelines paired with the classic whodunit mystery was a big task for Hays. With a plethora of directions the plot could have gone, I felt like there was far too much "fluff" in the plot.

Capri is beautiful, it's on the ocean, it's warm, rich people travel there, and there are rocky cliffs. That is about all we get. There are books I've read where I swear if you dropped me in the middle of the scene I could give you directions on how to get somewhere. This is not the case with Saltwater. With Capri already being an intriguing place, I think Hays could have done much more with it.

The whole "rich people with dark secrets" trope is overplayed in mystery/thrillers. I get why both readers and authors alike flock to it. Being a fly on the wall into the lives of the ultra-rich, even a fictional one, is enticing. At this point, an author has to write something out of the box to bring this trope to another level. After reading the synopsis I was hopeful Hays had done that and was sorely disappointed. There are twists I was not expecting but overall I found them unnecessary and left me feeling unfulfilled at the end of the book.

All in all, I think Saltwater needed to be more built out. The scene and characters were both lacking. This led to confusion and overall apathy towards the book on my part.

Capri, 1992 wealthy playwrite Sarah Linsgate has been found dead in the water under the cliffs, married to one of the wealthier families her death has been a mystery on the island for years. She left behind her husband and 3 year old daughter as well as a script for a play that appears to expose the Linsgate family. Now her daughter Helen is an adult and when they arrive on Capri for their annual trip, the necklace Sarah was wearing when she died is waiting for them at the villa. This family begins to spiral while Helen plans her escape from her family and enlists her uncle's assistant, Lorna to help. When Lorna then disappears Helen realizes that her insular family may be hiding sinister intentions and secrets.

I wanted to like this one, I love the setting (I mean Capri, who doesn't?) but the story was so slow paced and the characters all so unlikeable that I just didn't connect with it. The ending was the best part of the novel for me, but not enough to salvage the first 85%. I have now read a bunch of books this month where the characters are bad people simply because they have money, there is no other dimension written into them - I just don't enjoy this plot device because the characters are not fully fleshed out. I know some people really enjoyed this one which is why I picked it up, but it just wasn't for me.

3.25 stars

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC to review

I ate this one up! Twists upon twists and an ending that I didn't guess!! This was the perfect whodunnit with multiple layers of mystery and intrigue. I loved the multi POV chapters and I was obsessed with the setting! I've actually travelled to Capri so I especially loved recognizing different restaurants, beach clubs, and shops that I've been to. I really felt like I was transported back to the island and seeing it through the lens of someone vacationing with mega-rich people was the cherry on top. I would definitely recommend this book as a vacation read and I would *absolutely* recommend reading with a limoncello or aperol spritz at aperitivo hour.

Immense wealth, the island of Capri, and murder. It sounded like this would be a fun thriller. Unfortunately, I didn't like the characters or how the story was told with multiple narrators and changing timelines. The ending was interesting but overall the book felt undeveloped.

Story of a rich family with lots of secrets, betrayals, affairs, etc. Dark undertones throughout and hard to find any characters to like or root for. I was curious to see what happened but it wasn't my favorite. The ending reveals also seemed too far-fetched.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Evocative and smart, Saltwater oozed with an old money voice that makes the characters one's you'll love to hate.

On the cliffs of Capri, Sarah Lingate is found dead. She leaves behind a young daughter and a family that wil return each year to the sparkling waters of Capri. Readers are tasked with discovering if the pilgrimage is simply to honor a lost love or a ruse to cover that the death was something more insidious than a tragic accident.

Hays really taps into the current trend of creating awful characters doing awful things. It just works! I was pleased to find the writing sharp and cutting, offering both a plot and people who kept me engaged to the final page.


thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine & NetGalley for the ARC!

Publication March 25th, 2025

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Katy Hays crafts a stunning and immersive story in Saltwater, blending mystery, obsession, and the weight of history. With lyrical prose and an atmospheric setting, the novel pulls readers in from the very first page. The tension builds beautifully, and the characters are complex and compelling. This haunting tale lingers long after the final page, making it a must-read for fans of literary fiction with a psychological edge. A captivating and unforgettable masterpiece.


Thank You NetGalley and Random House

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Saltwater sets up to be a great thrilling mystery, but for me, the story dragged too much. In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri. Her family rules it as an accident even though some questions were never answered. We skip ahead thirty years when her daughter returns to Capri and discovers her mother's necklace that has not been seen since her death. Now questions arise; what really happened?

Amidst the alluring descriptions of the backdrop of Capri, you have the stereotypical rich family that can get away with literally murder and never face the consequences. The reader is inclined to to not like them much. It also does not help that the story drags on and on and feels as if it will never get to the point and end. Katy Hays has beautiful writing, and I could picture myself in Greece. However, the pacing of the story and the big reveal was lacking excitement.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC.

This book is beautifully atmospheric. Taking place in a gorgeous setting you are drawn into a family mystery that unfolds beautifully. I really was enamored by this book.