The Yacht Party
Some friendships fade, others turn fatal. To escape her suffocating debt and stagnant life, Bridget joins an old friend’s superyacht reunion, but the luxury vacation quickly becomes a nightmare as guests are picked off one by one. Trapped by a storm and a killer, she must face the dark secrets of their shared past before the ocean becomes her grave.
- Bridget - Protegonist
- Adesina (Ade) - Bridget’s university friend, rock star
- Sasha - Tom’s wife
- Tom - Sasha’s husband
- Jake - Bridget’s ex-boyfriend
- Clara - Bridget’s former flatmate
- Ryan - Friend from university
- Dawn - One of the university friend-group
- Mick - Drummer in Ade’s band
- Part I: Bridget
- Bridget receives a letter from Ade containing a plane ticket to Mauritius for a trip on his yacht.
- Ade has invited their university friend group to catch up.
- Dawn couldn’t make the trip.
- While anchored, Clara falls off the boat and hits her head but Bridget rescues her.
- Sasha goes missing and when she isn’t found she’s assumed to have gone overboard.
- Tom says someone knocked on the door and he heard her talking before she left the room and went missing.
- Ade says he didn’t send Ryan an invitation but when he was told Ryan was at the airport he let him come anyway.
- When Ade was just getting famous, Ryan interviewed him, and afterward some men harassed Ryan. Ade walked away instead of helping because he cared more about harm to his career than about Ryan.
- Bridget drinks the vodka she brought on board and instantly feels that something is wrong.
- Part II: Jake
- Jake never stopped loving Bridget.
- At a party after graduation Jake saw Ade and Bridget hooking up and was furious.
- As revenge he told Ade that he couldn’t record any songs Jake wrote unless he was allowed to share vocals.
- The record label wouldn’t go for it so Jake quit the band.
- One night he got drunk at a bar and caused someone life-changing injuries, leading to a twelve-month prison sentence.
- Jake finds Ryan stabbed to death in the beach club.
- Jake goes to check on Bridget and finds her body.
- Ade admits to Tom that he slept with Sasha shortly after her and Tom started dating.
- Ade apologizes to Clara because at university he really liked her but he felt he was better than her so he only saw her in secret. At the end of term Clara told Ade she was pregnant but a few months later she sent him a letter that she lost the baby.
- Ade says he named the baby girl they were going to have Tanis and that’s why his yacht is named Tanis.
- Jake goes back to his room and is hit in the chest by a crossbow.
- Part III: Clara
- Ade confronts Tom about hearing Sasha say that she wanted to leave Tom to be with Ade.
- Ade and Tom get in a physical fight and Ade strangles Tom.
- Ade tells Clara he invited everyone there in order to see her.
- Ade tells Clara he loves her and wants them to be together.
- Clara says he never apologized for the worst thing he did; the night they were together she told him ‘no’ when he started to take her clothes off.
- Ade says she is remembering the night wrong and that is simply not how it happened.
- Clara says the rape ruined her life and she despises him.
- Clara admits she is the one who sent Ryan an invitation.
- Dawn refused to room with ade any longer at university because Clara told Dawn what he did to her.
- Clara didn’t fall off the yacht at the beginning of the trip; she was trying to kill herself.
- When that didn’t work she planned to get revenge on Ade by murdering the others and framing him.
- Clara takes a knife and swipes her chest and arms so Ade will be convicted of her death as well.
- Ade realizes there is nothing he can do to convince anyone he’s not responsible, so he pushes Clara over the railing onto a lower deck.
- Epilogue: Bridget
- Bridget wakes up and finds Ade is the only one alive, insisting he didn’t do it, but she’s not sure she believes him.
Benedict Brown’s prose is sharp, and I enjoy his writing style, but The Yacht Party struggled to find its stride due to uneven pacing. The story struggled with its pacing because the narrative was heavily weighed down by excessive backstory. The author clearly used these deep dives into the past to build well-developed characters, but it didn't quite land; instead of feeling like I knew the characters better, the constant focus on their history just made the present-day plot feel stagnant.
I did, however, enjoy the twist, which was clever and not easily predictable - a refreshing high point in the mystery. Sadly, the momentum gained from that final chapter was lost in the epilogue which felt very anticlimactic after the tension of the reveal. #TheYachtParty #NetGalley
- Ade - Alive - Framed for the murders of his friends
- Mick - Dead - Drug overdose
- Sasha - Dead - Pushed overboard by Clara
- Bridget - Alive - Finds inspiration for writing a story from the events on the yacht
- Ryan - Dead - Stabbed by Clara
- Jake - Dead - Shot with a crossbow by Clara
- Tom - Dead - Strangled by Ade
- Clara - Dead - Pushed over the yacht railing onto a lower deck by Ade
- Drug use
- Alcoholism
- Infertility
- Infidelity
- Rape
- Murder
Publisher: Storm Publishing
ISBN: 9781837002634
Publication Date: February 3, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
