She Treads Softly: The Castaways

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

The Castaways

The Castaways by Lucy Clarke
1/6/26; 400 pages (originally published on 3/18/21)
Grove/Atlantic

The Castaways by Lucy Clarke is a highly recommended mystery and survival tale. This is a reissue of the novel originally published on 3/18/21.

Sisters Lori and Erin are taking a vacation on one of the small remote islands by Fiji. While on Fiji the night before they are to fly out to their final vacation destination, they have an argument. Erin stomps off in anger and misses the flight the next morning. The small plane disappears and her sister Lori is gone. Two years later the pilot of the downed plane shows up ill, on Fiji. Erin, who works as a journalist in the UK, returns to Fiji to talk to the pilot and find out what happened, how he survived, and what happened to the passengers. In a reply he uses the word "we" which gives Erin hope that Lori may be alive.

Two years ago, Lori did survive the crash landing on a small uninhabited island. Other survivors included the pilot, two male passengers, and a baby. While present day chapters follow Erin's investigation and search for Lori, alternate chapters follow the first 31 days for the castaways on the island through Lori's point-of-view. From each of their viewpoints, the bond between the sisters is clear and they are both mourning their loss but in vastly different circumstances.

This is a well-written, fast-paced investigative mystery mixed with a survival story. The story and experiences as told by each each sister are intensely different but both are compelling. Erin is in denial, consumed by the mystery, and mourning her loss while Lori misses her sister but is struggling to survive while caring for a baby. The overwhelming question is did Lori survive, if so, where is she, and can Erin find her sister or find closure.

The Castaways is a great choice for those who enjoy survival stories tempered by an overarching present day mystery. Thanks to Grove/Atlantic for providing me with an advance reader's copy via . My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.