The Season of Sinking by Daphne Woolsoncroft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
The Season of Sinking is the latest release from Daphne Woolsoncroft, author of the gripping 2025-Thriller, Night Watcher. This novel features one of my favorite tropes, where an MC returns to their hometown after a long time away and ends up investigating some sort of mystery.
In this story, we’re actually following twin sisters, Imogen and Amelia. The women return to their small hometown of Blair, Washington, after their mother suddenly passes.
They return to pack up her house and settle the estate, but Imogen is bothered by the circumstances of her death, and believes foul play could be possible.
The details of the night her mother died, they just don’t make sense to Imogen, and she can’t quite let it rest. Additionally, strange things start happening around the house, and that along with her Mom’s mysterious death, having Imogen’s spidey senses pinging off like crazy.
With the help of the cute boy next door, Rory, Imogen begins digging deeper into what happened to her Mom. There are also some other black spots in Imogen’s memory regarding her past, and she starts digging around there too.
We do get Amelia’s perspective as well, but Imogen is definitely the driving force behind this narrative. She’s unsettled by everything going on, and definitely takes a very active role trying to clear up her questions.
As many of us know, sometimes it’s best to leave the past in the past, but also, sometimes it comes to get you whether you’re ready or not. Imogen may get her answers, but at what costs?
After really enjoying Woolsoncroft’s last novel, Night Watcher, I was excited to get to this one, and though it wasn’t quite as successful for me as her 1st-novel was, I still feel it was quite entertaining and well-written.
Night Watcher played into some of my own personal fears, and I did love the podcast element of that one. This one though was still intriguing. I like how Woolsoncroft builds up the tension in her stories, and the way she reveals different layers to her mysteries.
I also loved the Pacific Northwest setting. This one is set on a lake, and the landscape and place felt like such a pivotal part to the story. It was easy to envision and I felt like the mood of the place was a good match for the story being told.
Overall, though this wasn’t the strongest fit for me as far as the content went, I still think it’s a great read. The characters are fantastic, particularly Imogen, and the writing is fluid and engaging.
I would definitely recommend this to Mystery Thriller fans, particularly if you like atmospheric stories with characters digging into their own pasts. I think this is a great pick for Summer reading as well; easily consumable in a weekend, or while you’re on vacation.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m excited to see what Woolsoncroft writes next!