After trailing spouse Marah Lenaerts suffers her third miscarriage in as many years, her husband Eden surprises her with a vacation to Malaysia, hoping it will lift her spirits. And it does, as they enjoy trading the bustle of their Shanghai life behind for the idyllic tropical paradise. But while on a diving excursion, they’re taken hostage by a group of terrorists, who take them to a remote island and hold them there for ransom. The longer that time drags on, though, the more doubts Marah begins to have about their captors’ true motivations.
The Depths
Kirk Kjeldsen
Grenzland Press (May 31, 2018) Softcover $12.95 (228pp) 978-0-9984657-3-9
THRILLER
Kirk Kjeldsen’s The Depths takes a woman on the edge and pushes her farther, resulting in a dark, engaging, and contemplative thriller.
After a series of miscarriages and marriage woes, Eden Lenaerts plans a Malaysian getaway with his despondent wife, Marah. The two begin to grow close again.
On a diving expedition, they rise to the surface and encounter a boat populated by violent men. These men abduct Eden and Marah, taking them to an abandoned island. Their possibility of survival grows slim, and Marah is forced to make the hardest choices of her life.
The events of The Depths unfold entirely through the Marah’s eyes. Her story kicks off on the first day of the vacation with little information about her or Eden. However, through Marah’s attempts at reconnection and her later panicked thoughts and actions, everyone becomes fully fleshed-out and dynamic. The mysterious abductors benefit the most from this characterization, through information that Marah cleverly attempts to use against them to escape.
Subtle foreshadowing, most evident in Marah’s gut reactions, and steadily tense events move the narrative along. Even before Marah and Eden are abducted, she’s frequently beset by violent and unsettling imagery.
Hope seems lost, first about Marah and Eden’s relationship, and later about their chances of escaping unharmed. Their relationship serves as an interesting barometer; as their loving veneer begins to peel away, they face significant threats.
The Depths takes two average people and shoves them headlong into increasingly unfamiliar and life-threatening conditions. Their reactions lead to introspection about what anyone is willing to do to survive. It’s a bleak and violent story at times, but one that paints a visceral picture of humanity and morality.
JOHN M. MURRAY (May/June 2018)
Verdict: With strong prose and stunning imagery, THE DEPTHS takes the thriller genre to the next level.
THE DEPTHS has a seemingly innocuous beginning: Eden, a financial executive, surprises his anxiety-riddled wife, Marah, with a vacation to Malaysia after she suffers her third miscarriage. They stay in a charming bungalow and make love on the beach, and the idyllic tranquility nearly feels like it might help them heal their fraught marriage. Yet, even from the book’s first poetic paragraph, author Kirk Kjeldsen uses powerful imagery to quietly refute that notion: “The fog appeared…. At first it looked like a tuft of dirty cotton. Then it looked like a spreading ink stain…. It rolled over them like a slow, gray wave, swallowing them whole.”
Even before the kidnapping occurs, Kjeldsen skillfully uses language to slowly invoke a growing sense of unease that’s felt by both Marah and the reader. His writing, both here and throughout the novel, is laden with well-researched details, like the prickly rambutan fruit in the market or constant references to the names of Malaysia’s cities and towns. His similes and metaphors are so finely crafted, they never feel overbearing or cliché, such as when he writes of sunlight “splashing like hot butterfat across the surface of the sea.” Each sentence successfully works toward the dual purposes of conveying a realistic setting while also creating the dread that pervades nearly every scene.
Marah herself adds to this feeling, her mind constantly circling and worrying and questioning. Her interior monologues are believable in their gut-wrenching vulnerability, seeming to say to the reader, I know you. We’ve all been in this place of despair. Her character, too, is complex and deep—though she is at first timid and unsure, she comes forcefully into her own, despite, or perhaps because of, the terrifying scenario thrust upon her.
Of the novel’s two major twists, one comes as a complete shock, both to Marah and to the reader. It’s to Kjeldsen’s credit that he’s managed to make it both believable in the context of the story yet also entirely unexpected. The second surprise, however, is relatively predictable, especially if the reader has been paying attention. Despite this very minor flaw, THE DEPTHS is a pleasurable read, immensely satisfying in its suspense.
Armed strangers kidnap a vacationing couple in Kjeldsen’s (Land of Hidden Fires, 2017, etc.) taut thriller.
After three miscarriages, Marah Lenaerts has been sinking into depression. She’s an American expat who’s been living overseas for years with her trader husband, Eden, a Belgian currently based in Shanghai. Eden has been distancing himself from Marah, but he suggests they take a Malaysian getaway, and Marah reluctantly agrees. This decision may not bode well for her neuroses. Scuba diving is on the itinerary, and it triggers her terror of sea creatures. But the couple seems to grow closer, and Marah’s anxiety eases. This quickly changes when Eden and Marah are accosted by men brandishing M16s. Although the aggressors’ English is limited, it’s abundantly clear that they’re kidnapping the couple. What’s less clear, at least initially, is who their captors are and what exactly they want. Marah has always looked to Eden for a sense of safety and protection. But with her husband just as helpless as she is, she will have to find her own strength. Kjeldsen’s short novel moves at a blistering pace, putting Marah through one ordeal after another. The protagonist’s mass of trepidations amplifies the tension; even breaks from the captors’ threats, for example, are wrought with inner turmoil, including a fear that Eden will attempt escape without her. Sharp, concise writing only improves the tale. Furthermore, readers will relate to many of the experiences and, after tiger mosquitoes, sand flies, and other insects leave behind “a tapestry of bites and rashes,” will feel as uncomfortable and itchy as Marah. The kidnappers’ objective does eventually come to light, and though some will guess where the plot is heading, it won’t lessen the impact of the ending or Marah’s harrowing struggle.
This tense, haunting tale gives readers front-row seats to the protagonist’s torment.
What Fran's Reading: Kirk Kjeldsen's literary thriller "The Depths"
Note to literary thriller fans: If you haven't discovered Kirk Kjeldsen, it's time. Unlike some overwritten, hyped-up, device-laden novels in the genre, Kjeldsen's novels are thoughtfully plotted, spare in the telling and beautifully written.
His newest, "The Depths" (Grenzland Press, 228 pp., $12.95 paperback), centers on a young married couple on vacation in East Malaysia.
Marah, an American ex-pat, and her Belgian husband Eden have lived in various Southeast Asian cities for several years, where he has worked as a financial trader. With each move, Marah has found work teaching English as a second language. But she yearns to start a family.
A third miscarriage has left her fragile, depressed and prone to panic attacks. Eden arranges a vacation to lift her spirits.
Marah's not enthusiastic, but she doesn't want to seem ungrateful for Eden's concern. She also hopes getting away might help bridge the growing distance between them. So the couple pack up their scuba gear and leave Shanghai for East Malaysia.
In fact, their first day begins well as they take a boat out to a reef for some diving. Marah is doing her best to tamp down her anxiety. Her initial panic at being submerged begins to lift as she follows Eden deeper and deeper. To her surprise, she actually enjoys exploring the reef. After sandwiches on their boat, they embark on a second dive to explore an underwater cavern.
As they head back to their boat, Marah is feeling mildly triumphant at having conquered her moments of fear. That abruptly ends when they spot the shadow of another boat next to theirs. When they surface, four men, two brandishing M-16s, take them hostage. Roughly dragged into the men's boat and tied up, they are transported to a deserted island and chained to separate trees.
Forbidden to speak, they are left to separately puzzle at their kidnapping. But when one kidnapper instructs Marah to tape a message asking her stepfather for a staggering amount of ransom money, she realizes they've somehow discovered he's wealthy.
When the request isn't met, the thugs ratchet up the brutality. Marah and Eden are given insufficient water and smacked down when they attempt to communicate. Sleep deprivation and exposure to the elements start taking their toll as sunburn and stinging insects raise welts all over their bodies.
Aware that any outward indication of her rising panic could prompt physical retribution from their increasingly frustrated captors, she desperately searches for ways to calm herself. Mentally reciting an Emily Dickinson poem helps, and she embraces it as a mantra.
"The Depths" is not merely a compelling thriller with unexpected turns, but a study of a psychologically tormented woman who must plumb her own depths to save herself and her husband.
Kjeldsen's writing palpably evokes the damp cool of night, the oppressive heat of day, the thirst for water, cracked lips and skin aflame from sunburn and ant bites. His meticulous attention to language makes for a story that is as pictorial as it is riveting.
Fran Wood, retired Star-Ledger op-ed columnist and former books editor, blogs at nj.com.
