Six Wakes

How it reads

Six Wakes is science fiction (closed-circle space mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are identity, secrets and survival. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 361 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.