Publisher: Harper Collins (Trade Paperback – 26 May 2026)
Series: Standalone
Length: 336 pages
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Australian author Kayte Nunn presents a captivating tale of family drama, classism, intrigue and revenge, all aboard a luxurious mega-yacht, with her wonderful new novel, The Yacht.
Plot Synopsis:
A man on the edge.
A woman hell-bent on revenge.
A cheating husband.
A desperate wife.
A property empire on the brink of collapse.
A family at loggerheads.
A predator hiding in plain sight.
Who will sink and who will swim?
Three generations of a billionaire family are taking their new superyacht on its maiden voyage. But when the yacht sinks, each of them has a different part to play, in this addictive, twist-filled thriller.
Kayte Nunn is a veteran author who has written several intriguing novels in recent years across the genres. Her more recent work has seen her dive into crime fiction waters, which includes her 2025 release, The Palazzo, and her new book, The Yacht. The Yacht, which was the first of Nunn’s books I’ve had the chance to read, was an excellent and entertaining thriller that sees dramatic revenge thrown against the inhabitants of luxury yacht.
I really enjoyed the compelling plot that Nunn threw together for The Yacht, which follows several complex characters on an interconnected and intense tale. This includes various members of the infamous Thyssen family, who have arrived at their father’s new luxury superyacht Ambition as it sails off the coast of Spain. Each member of this family has their own drama, including a dislike of the family’s greedy lifestyle, a cheating husband, and fear of the family’s controlling patriarch. In addition, you also follow Piper, the Ambition’s new deckhand, who has her own agenda. Thanks to some hints of the future, it becomes clear that you are following these characters, as well as a police detective from the port the yacht is moored at, as they head towards the Ambition’s destruction and are witnessing the events that caused it.
Nunn does an excellent job setting up the story for The Yacht and you are quickly caught up in personal storylines of the various protagonists. Nunn blends these multiple character-driven narratives together into a captivating, combined narrative, and the overlapping drama and multiple secrets really intensify each protagonist’s concerns, as well as the growing apprehension of events to come. Nunn also gradually reveals multiple additional secrets, such as hidden criminal activities aboard the Ambition and Piper’s true motivations, while even more threats lurk in the shadows. All this leads up to the big final sequence, where the long-awaited shipwreck occurs, and every character is thrown into turmoil. You’ll honestly power through the last third of the book as you try to determine who is going to survive and who will get justice, and you’ll mostly come away satisfied with the well-orchestrated conclusion.
I felt The Yacht was a well-written standalone thriller which made perfect use of its larger-than-life characters and fantastic class-focused drama. Nunn was clearly aiming for a mixture of Below Decks and Succession in this novel, and I think for the most part she succeeded. The dysfunction dynamics of the various Thyssen family members played off against Piper’s outsider view of events extremely well, and I loved the alternating drama. The resulting storylines around each character were personal and powerful, while the differing view of other perspective protagonists added some interesting insights that readers will lap up. While Nunn could have probably left this book as a pure drama tale, playing off the dysfunction of the main family, the inclusion of more traditional thriller elements resulted in a fast-paced read with some real stakes, especially with Piper’s plot of getting justice and revenge and the hidden exploits of other key characters. Further tension was added by some interesting in-universe social media messages at the end of several chapters, as well as one set of perspective chapters set in the future, which hints at coming calamity and help to set up expectations for the reader. Nunn ensured the final reveals and the big conclusion of The Yacht mostly lived up to the hype, although these final chapters did feel a little rushed. There was also something a little unsatisfying with some characters’ fates, but this didn’t take me out of the story too much.
Overall, The Yacht was an impressive and addictive read and it was one I was glad I got the chance to check out. Kayte Nunn created an excellent standalone for this book that combines some class-focused drama with an intense thriller plot. The Yacht ended up being a great read that will appeal to wide range of readers, and I’ll be curious to read more from Nunn in the future.