Psychological Thriller Recommendation: Robyn Harding | The Drowning Woman

When our Saturday Book Club was looking for our August thriller book club picks, we had lots of titles we considered but decided on Robyn Harding because we always like a psychological thriller that has a bit of edge to it. If you are new to Robyn Harding, she certainly goes up to the edge of the line with her books and doesn’t shy away from writing about characters who live on the fringe of society, doing what it takes to get by. I always like that about her books—her characters have desperation to their circumstances that increases the tension in the book!

In The Drowning Woman, a homeless woman on the run becomes entangled in a plot she never intended to when she saves a wealthy woman from drowning. I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend that format! The dual narrators worked perfectly with the plot and structure and made the domestic suspense elements come to life.

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What is The Drowning Woman about?

Before I get into my thoughts, read a bit more about the characters and plot of The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding. This is a spoiler-free summary of the book.

The Drowning Woman | Characters

Lee Gulliver was a restauranteur and chef in New York City whose business was impacted by the pandemic. She is now homeless and on the run from a shady businessman. Lee currently lives in her car in Seattle and works off the books for a local diner for cash.

Hazel Laval is a wealthy housewife married to Benjamin Laval. Hazel grew up without much money and cares for her mother who is in a facility with Alzheimer’s Disease. Benjamin helps pay for her mother’s care.

The Drowning Woman | Plot

Lee Gulliver is one of many whose life was destroyed by the pandemic. She was once a chef who owned her own restaurant in New York City, but was forced to take a loan from a shady businessman to keep her restaurant afloat and afford to pay her staff during the pandemic. Eventually, she was forced to close her doors, but without a way to pay back the loan and after a regrettable decision that caused her family to disown her, Lee was forced to flee her life. Now, with no money, no job, and no connections, Lee is living in her car on the streets of Seattle and working not exactly legally for a diner.

One morning Lee is awoken early and sees a beautiful woman sobbing and attempting to drown herself in the ocean. Lee rushes to save the woman and the two share a drink on the beach and a bit about their stories. The woman is named Hazel Laval and she is in an abusive marriage. What started as a BDSM relationship has turned into a TPE (Total Power Exchange) and Hazel has very little decision authority in her own life and marriage. She feels trapped both by how powerful and wealthy her husband Benjamin is, and by the fact that he pays for the care of Hazel’s mother.

As Lee and Hazel form an unlikely friendship, the women learn that despite how different their lives seem, they are both drowning in their own way. When Hazel comes to Lee to ask for help escaping her life and marriage, Lee reluctantly agrees to help her knowing it will mean losing her only friend in the process. While Hazel has money and a home (two things Lee sorely lacks), she also lacks the independence that Lee has. Both women may be able to help the other obtain what they need to survive, if only they can trust one another.

But Hazel may not be the friend Lee thinks she is… What really led Hazel to the beach that day? And if Lee helps her, did she accidentally become entangled in a web of lies she can’t escape from?

What did I think of the book?

If you read other books by Robyn Harding, you’ll love this book. It had similar appeal the The Arrangement by Robyn Harding, which you can find my review there. Overall I thought The Drowning Woman was compelling, suspenseful, and had a few good twists that kept me engaged.

The Drowning Woman | What I liked

The narrative structure worked really well for me. The first part is narrated by Lee and we hear more about her background, the day she saved Hazel, and their plans to help Hazel escape. Her section ended on quite the cliffhanger twist so after a bit of a slow start, I was really captivated by the time we got to the end of part one. Then it moves to Hazel’s perspective and back to the beginning so we get a lot more context and a different perspective on what is going on told from Hazel.

This structure really worked well because Harding leaves each section with a bit of mystery and a twist that ends with a cliffhanger and it made me so curious to understand what exactly was going on. For a domestic suspense book, this really worked for me and I found myself equally as invested in both Lee and Hazel’s storylines by the end of section two. I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises in the book but if you like domestic suspense or domestic thrillers, this book is for you!

The Drowning Woman | What didn’t work for me

I will keep this vague to avoid spoilers but there is a key piece of information we learn (along with Lee) at the end of Part 1 and it take way too far into the book for Hazel to learn the same piece of information. This made that reveal add tension at first when it dropped, but over time it led to a bit of a lackluster reveal when Hazel finally learns about it. I wish it came up sooner. The only other small thing was Lee’s backstory with her family and why she was alone on the run. It was compelling but such a background piece to the story and I wanted to know more. The details were vague enough that it didn’t add the tension it could have.

 The Drowning Woman | The Ending

The ending to The Drowning Woman totally worked for me! The back half of the story moves quickly and there are lots of reveals that move the pace along quickly. The epilogue was perfect to me when we see how each of Hazel and Lee’s stories ended. There was a bit of mystery before the reader finds out which path (of many) each woman would end up on so the suspense was perfect and the last chapter was a great way to tie it together for me. I felt satisfied after finishing the book.

How was the audiobook?

The audiobook format worked well for the book. The use a different narrator for both Hazel and Lee, and that made the sections and the personalities of the women feel distinct. I thought the pacing was good—I didn’t have to speed the audio up too much to enjoy the tempo like I do with some books. The narrators were both new to me but I thought they did a great job.

Brittany Wilkerson seems to have a bit more narration experience under her belt, while Henriette Zoutomou seems newer to the audiobook narration (according to my research). I thought both were well cast for the characters they narrated and overall the audiobook enhanced the reading experience, though I suspect I would have enjoyed it as much in physical as well.

Final Thoughts

I recommend this book for fans of domestic thrillers who appreciate books where the tension is built through relationship dynamics and secret backstories over plot-driven action. Though the plot is compelling, some in our book club discussion of The Drowning Woman mentioned they thought it was a bit slower, while others (myself included) didn’t find it slow at all. I was fascinated by each of the characters and wanted to know more.