Review: Jetsam by Tracy Grogan

Death-defying drama and an intimate character portrait make Jetsam by Tracy Grogan an addictive thrill for fans of the Divemaster Ricky series.

Leaving behind trauma and a shocking loss in North Africa, Ricky is eager to start a new job thousands of miles away, and turn a page in her unpredictable life. A three-month break on a luxury yacht seems like a dream job – an impressive salary and a string of cushy dives should be the perfect salve for her aching soul, but peace is not on the ship’s manifest.

As the scope and true expectations of her employment become clear, Ricky’s suspicions are slowly confirmed, and the threat of her ending up in another foreign jail becomes all too real. The small arsenal of weapons accompanying their “environmental expedition” should have been a clear hint, and while Captain Rich explains them merely as pirate deterrents, it feels as though Ricky is blindly walking into a battlefield.

In this installment, the battlefield is also personal, as Ricky’s private struggles come to the forefront much more than in previous books in the series. Haunted by the mounting tragedies of her recent exploits, the absence of Pascal, her frequently friction-heavy connection with Captain Rich, growing bubbles of anxiety are filling her mind, and the author brings these issues to life in visceral detail, sensitively exploring the healing process and the unusual ways that trauma can manifest unexpectedly. The first-person perspective makes it even easier to sink into the mindset of a struggling protagonist as she continues to persist both internally and externally.

There are occasional references to the Sinai Peninsula and the events of Book 2, but as has been true of each adventure in the series, this book could easily stand alone, as Grogan does a good job of bringing readers back up to speed with Ricky’s recent escapades, but doesn’t drop a load of exposition right off the bat. Some character nuance, personality quirks, and certain inside jokes may be missed if readers didn’t follow Ricky through Micronesia and Egypt, but it doesn’t detract from being immersed in this installment, as Ricky is such a richly crafted and engaging character.

The book will likely hook and hold loyal readers with this charming and rugged protagonist, but the storytelling execution does need work. Some passages brim with suspense, especially the technically thrilling and dive sequences that will make the reader hold their breath, but some of the procedural elements of the prose fall flat, or even seem unnecessary. The physical descriptions of characters’ movements slow down the pace of the writing, without adding much to the story or character-building. The ends of chapters can also seem abrupt – some seem intentionally designed to be suspenseful, while others offer less of a cliffhanger, making it much easier to slip a bookmark into place.

While the novel could use a final editing polish to energize the few remaining slow sections and catch the occasional grammatical mistake, Jetsam is an engrossing thriller where the internal struggle of its stellar lead character is as gripping as the high-seas adventure.