Summary

“The Woman in Cabin 10” by Ruth Ware is a murder mystery presenting the outlook of Laura “Lo” Blacklock suffering anxiety and restlessness aggravated by a terrifying break-in at her apartment before she leaves for a lavish sail.

Hoping to elevate her career by reporting on the first voyage of a luxury cruise ship, Lo loses concentration when she witnesses the woman in the next cabin hurled overboard. With no evidence of the alleged victim, she investigates her disappearance with sparse cooperation from the others on board. In the long run, she uncovers secrets about the ship owner and his ailing wife.

Categorized within the genres of thriller, mystery, and suspense, ”The Woman in Cabin 10” weaves a captivating narrative. The storytelling integrates various themes, ultimately bringing the plot to a fulfilling conclusion.

Feeling unsafe in her house after a robbery, Lo Blacklock goes to her boyfriend’s. Although he is at work, she’s comfortable and soon falls asleep. Hours later, she unknowingly hits him with a lamp when he attempts to lay close to her. When they return from the accident and emergency ward, he (Judah) asks that Lo lives with him, but she is skeptical.

The next day, Judah again suggests moving in, but Lo cannot envision a future where she has to be committed to raising a family.

On the train, Lo researches the Aurora Borealis she’s about to board. Owned by a wealthy Richard Bullmer, she notes that he’s only a few years older than she is, yet more accomplished. At the port, Lo discovers the Aurora is small, and when led to her cabin 9, feels claustrophobic. Although expectant of a text from Judah, she gets nothing.

Judah sends an email reaffirming his love for Lo and expressing concern about her silence since she got on the ship. Another email is sent by Lo’s boss, Rowan, requesting an update on the cruise the journalist embarked on.

Lo prepares for the first evening and finds out she lost her mascara to the thief. She hears a noise from the adjacent cabin and knocks on the door. A bewildered young woman opens up wearing a ratty Pink Floyd T-shirt and this is how Lo meets Carrie. Lo asks to borrow her mascara, and the woman impatiently tells her to keep it. Lo notes that the woman looks more confused than she is.

In the cocktail lounge, Lo scans the room for the woman in the Pink Floyd T-shirt, but her thoughts are interrupted by one of the guests, Cole Lederer. Lo is amazed by how young Lord Bullmer looks and how sick his wife is. A former colleague, Ben Howard, tells her Anne Bullmer has been fighting cancer for years.

Lord Bullmer welcomes everyone to the Aurora and raises a toast to the boat and the beauty of the northern lights. Afterward, he escorts Anne back to their cabin. Lo enviously watches Ben networking but cannot make herself join in. Cole flirts with her, but she deflects his advances by discussing Tina, a veteran journalist and editor.

A fellow passenger, Chloe, notices Lo’s bruise sustained when her apartment got robbed. Lo is reluctant to speak about it. Archer suggests self-defense and offers a performance. He ends up frightening Lo when he twists her arm behind her back.

After dinner, Lo tries to catch Bullmer’s attention but stumbles when Cole suddenly takes a picture of her. As an apology, Cole calls Bullmer for her. Bullmer warns against taking any photo of Anne as she is self-conscious about her looks and illness. He offers to speak discreetly with Lo the next day.

Lo returns to her cabin later, dead drunk. As she struggles to unlock her door, Ben stands close, making sexual advances. Although he is also drunk, Lo hits his groin. Minutes later, they sit in her cabin, and Lo narrates her robbery encounter to Ben. He tries to reignite their romantic relationship but is cut off and made to leave.

Hours later, Lo startles awake, her heart pounding because she had heard a scream. Conflict arises when Lo witnesses murder. She hears a door sliding open, followed by a big splash.

Several Facebook posts are made a few days later by Judah. He asks if anyone has heard from Lo, but no one has.

Lo runs to the veranda, opens the windows, and looks into the sea. She looks at the balcony next to hers and sees a smear of blood. Sure that the murderer heard her running out, she returns to her cabin and calls the stewardess, Karla. When the head of security, Nilsson, arrives, she explains what she heard. Returning to the balcony, however, the smear of blood is gone.

Nilsson takes Lo to the adjacent cabin where she finds it is empty. Lo insists she had spoken to a woman in cabin 10 and shows the mascara she borrowed. Nilsson states that he cannot pursue the situation further without concrete proof and then asks that they reexamine the matter in the morning. When Nilsson leaves, Lo considers the possibility of wrong assertions. However, she cannot shake off the thought that there is a killer close by.

The next day, Lo follows Nilsson belowdecks to identify the woman from cabin 10 and is shocked by the contrast. The rooms are smaller and less attractive. The staffers become defensive when Lo mentions that she heard a scream.

When Lo and Nilsson talk about the sail, she learns they are going to Trondheim instead of the stop at Bergen.

During a solitary breakfast, she considers getting the mascara tube DNA tested but erases the thought. She checks her email, but there is no Wi-Fi. Lo’s commitment to uncover the truth stems from a sense of responsibility and her own survival instincts.

On her way to her cabin, she finds Tina on the deck, smoking. They discuss briefly about Lo’s career, and Lo tells her she cannot freelance because she is on a staff contract. Wondering if Tina was involved in the woman’s disappearance, she asks if she had a great night. Tina snaps at her, raising her suspicion.

A news article from the Harringay Echo reports a missing and unavailable Lo Blacklock since Tuesday. The article states that a representative from Aurora affirms that Lo left the boat when it stopped at Trondheim.

Lo returns to a thoroughly cleaned cabin and cannot find the borrowed mascara. After speaking to the woman who cleaned her room, Lo calls Nilsson. He tells her Ben informed him of her break-in in London. He talks about Lo’s inconsistent sleeping patterns and antidepressants. Although he’s empathetic, Lo gets angry and insists she did not make the missing woman up. She finally sends him out of her room.

As Lo goes deep into her investigation on the yacht, the theft of the mascara, evidence of the woman in Cabin 10, amplifies her unease.The plot builds as Lo’s relentless drive to expose the mystery collides with the poor contributions of the other guests.

Lo reminisces on how she fell into depression as a young adult. Furious at Ben for making her into a fickle witness, she confronts him. Ben admits to being drunk when he had the conversation with Nilsson. When Lo tells him all she has heard and seen, he believes. He encourages her to speak to Lord Bullmer about it. They decide to question other guests the next day.

Lo joins Chloe, Tina, and Anne for treatments and almost panics when they descend to the base level of the spa. She falls asleep because of the soothing feeling of a mud-wrap. She wakes up to the shower running in the next room and goes to turn it off. In the next roon, Lo sees “STOP DIGGING” written across the bathroom mirror. This threat is a rising action in “The Woman in Cabin 10” as Lo becomes more interested in solving the mystery.

Alarmed by the threat, Lo is about to call for help when she stops herself. She asks the receptionist about other entrances to the spa and learns Ben came looking for her. At the lounge, Cole shows the photos he’s been taking on the ship. Lo locates a picture of the woman from cabin 10 dressed as a waitress on the camera.

While trying to piece together the motives and secrets of the other passengers with Ben, he talks rudely about Tina. Lo notes the misogyny in his voice.

Lo goes to Lord Bullmer’s suite for a private interview and meets a crying Anne. She’s told Richard is either having dinner or in the hot tub. Lo finds him and some other passengers in a large jacuzzi. As she narrates the events leading to the murder she witnessed, Cole breaks a champagne glass and cuts his hand. Bullmer tells Lo to wait for him at the restaurant, where they will discuss what happened.

Done conversing, Bullmer promises to speak with Nilsson and suggests that Trondheim is the nearest place to contact the police.. Ben visits Lo later to tell her Cole’s camera had been knocked into the hot tub, destroying every photo. Lo concludes the destruction of the camera was intentional.

Later, Karla knocks to remind Lo about dinner. Lo promises to protect Karla if she shares any valuable information. Karla is upset and advises Lo against making further trouble for the staff. After dinner, Lo runs into a tired and defeated Anne.

Lo is in her cabin when she hears taps on her door. Looking in the peephole, she is astounded to see the woman from cabin 10. Lo opens the door and chases the woman from cabin 10 down the corridor. In ”The Woman in Cabin 10,” the climax is reached when Lo Blacklock finds the woman from cabin 10. They get through the staff door before the woman hits Lo’s head against the wall, making her lose consciousness. When Lo comes to, she is in a windowless room.

Having no way to tell what time it is, Lo is afraid because it’s been a while since she took her antidepressants. She screams, but no one responds. She realizes she made herself a target by digging into the woman’s absence. She also wonders why she is locked up since the woman is alive.

The next time the woman sneaks in, Lo stabs her with the ragged end of the tray. When the woman frees herself, Lo asks for her antidepressants. The woman returns with food, one pill, and a book for Lo.

Catching sight of the blood Lo’s attack caused in the mirror, she goes to wash it off. When she comes out, she has wiped her eyebrows off, leaving a smooth, skull-like forehead recognized as Anne’s. Lo realizes Anne died the night the ship left England, and the woman in cabin 10 has been impersonating her ever since.

The next day, the woman comes dressed as Anne. Lo confronts her captor about her plans with Lord Bullmer. The woman insists she and Bullmer are in love. Lo disagrees and says she is a means to an end. Her captor angrily exits the room and does not bring her dinner that night. When the Aurora stops moving, Lo knows they have stopped at Bergen and screams for help.

An email is sent by Judah to a group of family and friends reporting that pictures of clothes and boots that belonged to Lo were shown to him by Scotland Yard for identification. Although devastated, he is waiting for more news from the police.

Lo waits for a long time for the woman to reappear. Eventually, she does. The woman is worried when Lo faints and apologizes for staying away so long. She gives Lo food and tells her name. She refuses to reply when Lo asks if Bullmer will kill her.

Lo knows she needs Carrie’s help to escape. The next time Carrie comes, they talk about how she met and fell in love with Richard while she was a waitress. He had suggested sneaking her on board. He claimed Anne would leave the cruise early, then she’d impersonate her for the rest of the voyage. On the first night, Richard killed Anne, and Carrie threw the body into the water. Lo tells Carrie that Bullmer’s plan was to kill them both.

Carrie hurriedly tells Lo she has to exit the boat disguised as Anne. She explains that Bullmer has connections everywhere, so Lo cannot leave Norway under her real name. Carrie and Lo swap clothes. To Lo’s astonishment, she smashes her head against the bunk, pretending to have been attacked by Lo.

Free, Lo finds the money Carrie told her to take. Unfortunately, she hears Bullmer in the hallway and has to hide. She tries to jump to the veranda of the nearest cabin but falls into the icy water. She swims to a little village and gets into a hotel. Following her confrontation with Carrie, the falling action unfolds as Lo escapes the yacht by jumping into the sea.

When the hotel manager asks about her possession of Anne Bullmer’s credit cards, Lo tells him to call the police, contrary to what she promised Carrie. The manager calls Richard Bullmer instead, and when Lo sees the ship returning, she runs away. She remembers Carrie’s warnings about Richard’s influence and realizes she left her wallet with money at the hotel.

Hours later, Lo falls asleep in a barn. The barn owner awakens her later on. On the drive to his house, Lo calls Judah. Back to safety, she reminisces on how she survived. Judah calls Scotland Yard when he hears Lo’s story.

While at Judah’s house, he gives a list of messages people left when she was missing. Later at night, Lo encourages Judah to accept the job he turned down earlier because she’ll move with him.

Lo initially sets out to prove her proficiency as a travel journalist with her Aurora Borealis assignment. However, the turning point in “The Woman in Cabin 10” occurs when Carrie disappears. She redirects her efforts towards uncovering a murder. This shift endangers Lo’s professional reputation but highlights her resilience and determination. By the story’s end, Lo contemplates a writing career in less conventional topics.

After the bodies of Anne and Richard Bullmer are found, the resolution occurs when Carrie sends Lo some money from a private Swiss account.