There are those thrillers that keep you turning the pages by strapping you down in the front seat of the roller-coaster from hell and running you through every tire-screeching twist of a car chase, every fusillade turn of gunfire, propelling you skyward on the mushroom cloud of violent explosions and driving you down in a vortex of betrayal, lies and death.

And then there are those thrillers like Sara J. Henry’s Learning to Swim. There are no car chases in Learning To Swim, no hail of bullets, no explosions, no two or three digit body counts. What there is, is an escalating tension that begins with the first sentence and carries the reader through dark, mysterious waters to be tossed, exhausted but satisfied, on the shore of the final, shocking end. If you start this book late in the evening as I did, plan on staying up way past your bedtime.

The quality of the writing, the intricacies of the plot and the superb characterization so over shadowed the few nits I had with the story as to make them pointless to mention. This debut novel by Sara J. Henry is a must addition to everyone’s to-be-read list.

You can pre-order the Kindle Version or the Hardcover Version from Amazon, due for release on February 22.