Life below deck:
the dark allure of superyachts
What drew me to have a superyacht as my setting for I Did Warn Her? Amidst secrets, corruption, and dark deeds, there’s a lot to unpack if you want to step on board…
She Started It is set on a deserted island, and I chose this setting so that my characters would have nowhere to run. This was a lot easier for me as a debut author to manage. Limited characters, limited exploration, but somehow more flexibility and freedom at the same time. I loved writing an isolated setting so much I knew I instantly wanted to do it again for my second novel, but the question was where?
I knew an island again was out; I didn’t want to immediately repeat myself. I started thinking about other potential opportunities, and somehow straight away the idea of it being on the water sprung to mind. A conversation with my agent later, I had settled on superyachts. Something which I obviously had never been on. There’s a moment right at the beginning of I Did Warn Her where my protagonist Sasha comments that the most luxury she’s ever had was a cheap upgrade to a first class train ticket, and that’s true for me too. I had never stepped foot on a superyacht, and I almost certainly never will. But it felt right, and so I set to work. Originally called A Body in the Water, book two had officially begun, and the setting was a glamorous and dangerous one.
While researching for I Did Warn Her, my agent sent me an email with the link to a Guardian article. A detailed account about the crews on superyachts, I knew I was right in thinking this would be the perfect thriller setting. After all, as the title says, when things go wrong, they can simply leave and head for the next port, the next entirely different country. If a crew member ends up dead, there isn’t anyone around to fight their corner. By the time family are informed, the superyacht is gone, and so are any potential repercussions. One shockingly callous moment in the article happens when the bosun on one superyacht fell overboard, and the captain simply threw some flowers over the side, gave the bosun’s belongings to the police, and sailed on. The owners of superyachts are murky, and exceedingly wealthy, and therefore very difficult to 1) track, and 2) pursue for any legal action.
Even if you survive your time on a superyacht, there are the ridiculous demands of the ultra-rich. These are not people who have been told no much in their lives—if ever—and that can mean bizarre requests aplenty. From a certain ingredient in a meal requiring a helicopter flight, to coming up with evening entertainment, to the darker underbelly of sexual encounters, the hours are long and difficult for superyacht crew. Most of all there seems to be a culture of silence, because their clientele are considered ‘elite’. Sometimes they are A-list celebrities, and being crew means being invisible. Privacy is the single most important factor. There is something very sinister in having a job where the clients have the ultimate control. The customer is always right, but in this case, they truly are.
A more light-hearted take on superyachts comes in the form of Bravo series Below Deck, which follows crew members on board in various locations. I watched so much of this for research (okay, and for fun), and the crew dynamics are fascinating. Working together for such a long time in such close quarters breeds every kind of relationship, and this is the perfect environment for a cast of thriller characters. It was easy to create my stewardesses, all beautiful, all hiding things, and the deck crew. Mixed in with the chef, the captain and the chief officer, I Did Warn Her is, as Sara Ochs so aptly put it, “Below Deck with a body count”.
Thrillers with isolated locations are a great way of raising the stakes for characters. Having that then be a superyacht, where the motivations of those in charge are unknown and potentially unsavoury, was too good to resist. The Ophelia, the superyacht in I Did Warn Her, is the amalgamation of all the superyachts I discovered during my research for the book (sadly, any real life research was definitely not possible!). Opulent, stylish, just like all the others, but as with superyachts and thrillers alike, the shiny surface hides the murky depths below.