THE RESORT
For readers of Rachel Hawkins and We Were Never Here comes a searing vacation thriller set on a remote island in Thailand following two mysterious women, a charismatic group of expats, and the one murder poised to bring their paradise crashing down.
There are three rules to follow during a vacation at the famous Koh Sang Resort:
1 – Leave the past behind.
When Cass sets foot on the coast of Thailand’s world-famous party island, she’s searching for an escape. With dark secrets following her every move, Koh Sang becomes the perfect place to hide.
For readers of Rachel Hawkins and We Were Never Here comes a searing vacation thriller set on a remote island in Thailand following two mysterious women, a charismatic group of expats, and the one murder poised to bring their paradise crashing down.
There are three rules to follow during a vacation at the famous Koh Sang Resort:
1 – Leave the past behind.
When Cass sets foot on the coast of Thailand’s world-famous party island, she’s searching for an escape. With dark secrets following her every move, Koh Sang becomes the perfect place to hide.
2 – Always be careful of who you trust.
Now, years later, Cass is a local dive instructor alongside the Permanents, a group of expats who have claimed the island as their own. The Permanents don’t linger on who they were before the island. Simply because, like Cass, they all have something to outrun.
3 – If someone discovers who you really are, run.
But suddenly, a dive student is found dead, and paradise comes crashing down. Because this isn’t the first mysterious death on the island, and it won’t be the last. Someone knows who Cass is and they’re ready to make sure justice is finally served.
- Sourcebooks Landmark
- Hardcover
- February 2024
- 384 Pages
- 9781728279558
Buy the Book
$26.99
About Sara Ochs
Sara Ochs is an American law professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, where she teaches legal writing and international law courses. She recently moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and visiting researcher at the University.
Praise
“A deadly, dangerous, beautiful nightmare.” —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End
“A fast-paced read, jam packed with suspense. The idyllic setting, untrustworthy cast and compulsive storyline make it the perfect summer thriller.” —John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The One
“An escapist, up-all-night thriller that holds you under and doesn’t let you surface for air.” —Lucy Clarke, author of One of the Girls
“Propulsive and devilishly twisty…demands to be read in one breathless sitting.” —Catherine Ryan Howard, internationally bestselling author of 56 Days
“A knockout crime thriller. A stunningly written, twisting mystery which keeps you glued from first to the last page.” —Cate Quinn, author of Black Widows and The Clinic
Discussion Questions
1. “The Permanents” live long-term on Koh Sang, an island resort in Thailand. Have you ever been to a resort like this? Would you live on one permanently?
2. At the beginning of the novel, Cass receives a photograph of herself with a note that says, “I know who you are.” Why does this scare her so much? What would you have done if you found this type of note outside of your house?
3. Both Cass and Brooke have something in common: they are trying to disguise their real identities. Discuss the ways they have gone about changing themselves to hide who they really are. If you were trying to hide your identity, how might you go about it?
4. Neil states that some people “use travel either to find something or to hide from something.” What are each of the characters trying to find or trying to hide? Then, discuss a time when you travelled and were trying to find or hide something.
5. We eventually find out why Brooke is really on Koh Sang. WhatBrooke is an influencer with an Instagram called @BrookeaTrip. How is her job as an influencer portrayed in the story? What are your thoughts on influencer culture?
6. What does Cass find next to Lucy’s body, and how does this object offer important clues to the events of the night she was murdered? Were you surprised to learn who the object belonged to?
7. Cass and Brooke both don’t believe that Lucy drowned—they think someone killed her. How are their attempts at investigating different, and why are they both so keen to find out who did it?
8. After three deaths in the span of a few weeks, it seems obvious to some that these are more than just accidents. If you were stuck on an island with a killer on the loose, what would you do?
9. Throughout the story we get to read from both Cass’s and Brooke’s perspective. How did this affect your reading experience? Do you think it added to the mystery?
10. How does the idyllic location of Koh Sang juxtapose with the horrible crimes that take place there? Have you heard of a time when something bad had happened in a place you were visiting?
11. We eventually find out why Brooke is really on Koh Sang. What was her reason for being there, and what is her history with Cass? How did you feel about Brooke and Cass after learning the truth of their circumstances?
12. The story ends with shocking twists. Did you see any of them coming? If not, what did you think was going to happen? What twist surprised you most?
Interviews
The Resort is a fresh thriller with unforgettable twists. What inspired you to write this story?
The inspiration from The Resort comes from a backpacking trip I took throughout Thailand in 2015. Our last stop on that trip was this paradise island where my friends and I became scuba certified. (Sound familiar?) I instantly fell head over heels for that island and even considered dropping everything and moving there. But shortly before I was set to leave, I discovered that two British tourists had been brutally murdered on the beach not far from where I was staying, only a year before. That juxtaposition between that stunning and welcoming island and the horrible crime that happened there really stuck in my brain and ultimately served as inspiration once I began drafting The Resort several years later.
What was it like to write from both Brooke’s and Cass’s perspective? Did it make plotting the novel challenging?
I wanted to tell this story from the perspectives of two different characters who view themselves as very different people with different approaches and motivations but who, at their cores, have a lot in common. Given that commonality, it was often challenging to differentiate the voices between the two characters, and it took quite a bit of work to ensure that the reader would always be able to tell which chapters were narrated by Brooke and which were narrated by Cass. All in all though, I think using the two different narrators increased both the suspense of the book as well as the depth of the characterization. I love both Brooke and Cass, and I’m so eager to hear which character resonates more with readers!
What does your writing process look like?
While I try to be fairly organized in most aspects of my life, my drafting process is quite chaotic! I really wish I could be a plotter and start each book with a detailed outline, but that just doesn’t work for me—I’m always too impatient to get to the writing part! So, what I do is start with what I call a “half draft,” which contains all the scenes and chapters I know I want to include in the book. Once I have that, I’ll go back to the very beginning and fill in all the scenes and chapters and character development that are missing until I end up with my “full draft.” It’s a bit of a process, but it works for me!
What do you hope readers experience while reading this book?
More than anything, I hope that The Resort allows readers to escape their daily lives for at least a little while and transports them to a beautiful and dangerous island in Thailand.
How did the novel evolve over the course of writing? Were there any major changes?
There were many changes from my first draft to the version that’s landed on the shelves in bookstores and libraries. Before my agent even sent out the book to publishers, we worked together for almost a year on structural edits, which made The Resort so much stronger. These included things like alternating chapters between Brooke’s and Cass’s perspectives and making the middle of the book more suspenseful and twisty. I am very happy with the end result, and I hope readers feel the same!
What are some books you’ve read that have influenced your writing?
There are so many books that have influenced my writing! Of course, The Beach by Alex Garland, which is the original backpacking thriller, was one of the primary influences for The Resort. But there are so many phenomenal writers currently writing destination thrillers, such as Amy McCulloch (Breathless, Midnight), Lucy Foley (The Guest List, The Hunting Party), and Allie Reynolds (Shiver, The Swell), and they have all been huge influences on my writing. And those are just a few of the amazing destination thriller writers out there!
What are you working on nowadays?
I’m currently hard at work on book two, which will be another destination thriller focused on a small group of international characters. I can’t say too much about it just yet, but it’s tentatively set in the outback of Australia, and it will deliver the same suspenseful twists and turns as The Resort!