Why a Booktrail?
2000s: How WOULD you go about finding someone who seems to have disappeared into thin air?
Distress Signals
What you need to know before your trail
The day Adam Dunne’s girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads ‘I’m sorry – S’ sets off real alarm bells. He panics and sets about finding her at any cost.
He’s shocked to find that she was on a cruise ship called the Celebrate – and that a woman, Estelle, disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground…
Travel Guide
Onboard a cruise ship on the Mediterranean seas
From Cork to the vast Mediterranean bays of Barcelona and Villefranche. Adam heads out to Barcelona to board the same ship but as he will soon find out the laws on a ship are vastly different to those on land. A crime may have been committed but Adam doesn’t know where and he has to prove both before any kind of investigation can be carried out.A missing person has to be proven as one and an adult can choose to go missing if they want to. They’re old enough to make their own decisions according to the law. And maritime law does not always go the way of the laws that govern dry land.
This cruise is unlike any other cruise you may recognise or get to go on (hopefully at least). There are some dark deeds on board and mysteries which loiter in the long dark corridors. The author worked in a hotel so has plenty of experience of customer care and the daily routines these people would have and the issues they might have to deal with. Life on board seems to be a mix of a daily reality show and a horror film.
Cork
The other location in the novel is Cork where the author is from. Adam and Sarah live in her old apartment on Douglas Road and Sarah works near to the South Mall where she used to work. As for the ‘scene’ where Adam meets his friend in a coffee shop on Western Road, this was also drawn from her own experience.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Distress Signals
Author/Guide: Catherine Ryan Howard Destination: Cork, The Mediterranean Departure Time: 2000s
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