Adrift – Will Dean

Published By: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 400
Released On: 19/02/2026

Three of them adrift on the narrowboat. Mother, son, wickedness.

Peggy Jenkins and her teenage son, Samson, live on a remote stretch of canal in the Midlands. She is a writer and he is a schoolboy. Together, they battle against the hardness and manipulation of the man they live with.

Until, one day, Peggy assumes control, and their lives will never be the same again.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I remember the first Will Dean book I read, and it was clear to me that his writing was what was missing from my life, and his subsequent books have only proved that. When you get a new Will Dean novel, you know it’s going to be brilliant, and awful (thematically) and that is what we got here.

It is a great story about family tensions, isolation, loneliness, and fear.

Will’s books always make me feel uncomfortable, in a good way. They’re well written with great character development and an uneasy tension.

This is told through two POVs – Peggy and her son Samson, who have to live treading on eggshells for fear of what Drew, his father, will do to them. Will has captured the topic of domestic violence well. He’s not created the stereotypical abuser who is physically violent towards them, for the most part, instead it’s a quieter abuse: who did you talk to, where did you go, why are you wearing that, is my dinner ready etc. He’s a man you don’t want to be around and he made me so angry.

I liked the idea of the two POVs except I would have liked them to be a bit different. I feel both Peggy and Samson’s voices were too similar and so the two POVs didn’t stand out as much as I’d have liked. That’s probably my one complaint, and it’s not really a bit complaint because it doesn’t spoil the reading of it.

It feels very different to Will’s other books but I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s got the same depth, and exciting if uncomfortable storyline, and good storytelling. But there’s this feeling about it that makes it feel different – not in a negative way, just a feeling. I wonder if it’s because this feels so real? The previous books of his I’ve read feel more detached – specialist divers, cruisers, hostages etc – they all feel further away whereas this one feels like it could happen to anyone.

I’m lucky enough not to have experienced domestic abuse, be it physical, emotional, or financial, but this seems to have the right tone. I think it might be difficult to read for those who have gone through it, so just a word of caution there. Because it feels so well and I can imagine people seeing themselves in the characters which might make for an upsetting reading experience.

I won’t spoil it but something happens in the prologue, and whilst it is mentioned once or twice in the main book, it’s never really explained enough for me as to why it happened and what it had to do with the rest of the story so I would have liked that to have been explored more.

Part one is very good but part two was much better, and felt more like I have come to expect from Will’s voice.

It is gripping, thrilling and tense, it is a slow but in a calculated way rather than a boring way. But you will zoom through it as if its half the length.