Into the Water

Following the unexplained death of her sister, Nel, in a pool at the foot of a cliff, Jules Abbott returns to Beckford, a fictional town in Northumberland, to care for her niece, Lena. The novel focuses on a series of characters to unravel the relationships between them. It is told in a mixture of first-person and third-person narrative.[5] Jules estranged herself from Nel as she was wounded, her sister assumed that she enjoyed being sexually assaulted by her then boyfriend Robbie. Lena is furious at Jules for not speaking to her mom and believes that her mom jumped into the Drowning Pool because she blamed her for her friend Katie's death. Jules does not believe that her sister jumped and notices the fear in Nel's voice in the last voicemail she sent her imploring to meet her, which she dismissed earlier like other calls from Nel. She says this to Detective Sean Townsend who investigates the case and he gets disappointed at her. DS Erin Morgan feels Sean's distress in the case and comes to know that his mother committed suicide at the same river in which Katie and Nel (as there was no evidence of struggles) did.

Helen Townsend stays at her father-in-law Patrick's cottage as her husband betrayed her. Louise gladdened at Nel's death (as she holds her responsible for making girls go to the river by writing about the suicide pond) starts to mourn for her daughter Katie again. Josh, his son is terrified that his mom was not at the house when Nel died.

Jules searches for her mother's bracelet which Nel wore all the time and is shocked to find that it is missing. Louise finds diet pills among Katie's belongings with Nel's name and tells Sean that Nel's murder should be made public. But it turns out that Lena bought it for Katie who asked for it.

Mark Henderson, Lena's teacher finds Nel's bracelet in Helen's drawer when searching her room. Josh and Lena breaks his windows when he is away to sate their anger at Katie's death. Josh tells Sean that Mark seduced Katie and Lena reveals that Katie sacrificed herself to protect Mark from being arrested for sex offence. Louise confronts Lena for keeping the information from her and Lena tells her she threatened Katie to end her relationship with Mark. After Louise leaves, she tells Jules that it was Nel who did that and leaves saying she needs some time.

Erin comes to know that Nel and Sean had a relationship. She asks Sean about it and he barks at her to check his records. She meets Nickie, a con artist who tells her that she must look upon Lauren (Patrick's dead wife) and not Helen.

Lena waits for Mark at his home and tries to kill him but ends up injured. He binds her and tries to escape with her in the car as he doesn't want to injure her. He confronts her at his ex's cottage and tells Lena that he loved Katie and did not kill Nel.

The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 63% of critics "panned" the book, whilst 19% and 6% of the critics expressed "mixed" or "positive" impressions, respectively. Another 13% of the critics gave the book a "rave" review, based on a sample of 16 reviews.[6]

In contrast to the general acclaim Hawkins received for The Girl on the Train, Into the Water received mixed reviews. While acknowledging the challenges of writing for 11 separate narrative voices, crime novelist Val McDermid wrote in The Guardian that the similarity of the characters' tone and register makes it "almost impossible to tell [them] apart, which end up being monotonous and confusing"; furthermore, it doesn't reflect the speech patterns of Northumberland. McDermid concludes that the sales will be much higher than the readers' enjoyment.[7]

Similarly, Independent's Sally Newall says that the voices weren't "distinct enough". She was "semi-gripped" by the novel, but found that the "myriad of characters" made it difficult to care about them or the final reveal.[5] Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote that Hawkins' "goal may be to build suspense, but all she achieves is confusion. Into the Water is jam-packed with minor characters and stories that go nowhere."[8] The New Statesman's Leo Robson wrote "Most of the time, the novel is plausible and grimly gripping." He commended the writing as "addictive", and added that the novel "is on a par with The Girl on a Train".[8] Jocelyn McClurg for USA Today also offers praise, suggesting "Hawkins, influenced by Hitchcock, has a cinematic eye and an ear for eerie, evocative language."[9]

In 2017 Ali Qane’ of the Tehran publisher Kuleh Poshty Publications stated that the company he works for received the right to translate the book in Iran after Qane’ requested the author's permission to do so via a telephone call; he stated that five employees of the company are translating different parts of the book.[10]