Wreck by Fleur Ferris

Random House Australia, 2017. ISBN 9780143784319
(Age: 14+) Highly recommended. Tamara Bennett is leaving her temporary job at the Coastal Daily, and is looking forward to Orientation Week at university. Interested in only reporting good news stories, she is looking forward to becoming a journalist. Then she arrives home to find her home invaded and dangerous men after a note. What could this note be? Did it have something to do with the letter in the bottle she found on the beach and reported in the Coastal Daily? She has to make up her mind who she can trust, especially after Zel Chisel, youngest son of the Chisel newspaper moguls, gets her out of her house and away from danger.
Told in alternative voices by Tamara and Zel, Wreck takes the reader on a roller coaster ride as they both go on the run. Tamara is determined to find out the truth even though the charismatic Knox Chisel tries to get her to stop and paints a picture of a mentally unstable Zel. Meanwhile, in Zel's voice the reader discovers the background to the note as they follow the Chisel family's yacht foundering at sea, and the disappearance of Christian, the Chisel who was being groomed to take over the newspaper empire. Could Christian still be alive and did he send a note in a bottle?
The power that the very rich wield is uncovered as Tamara finds just how far reaching the Chisel influence is. She has to rely on her own instincts about Zel and uses her research skills and intelligence to work out what is happening.
The themes of corruption, media monopoly and family rivalries will resonate with readers, but it is the tension and edginess that will keep them reading.
Readers who enjoyed Ferris' previous books, Risk and Black, will be delighted to have another suspenseful, exciting book from this author.
Pat Pledger