Search  for anything...
Penguin

The Swimming Pool

    • Based on 4,444 reviews
Condition: New
Checking for product changes
$22.14 Why this price?

Buy Now, Pay Later

As low as $5 / mo
  • – 4-month term
  • – No impact on credit
  • – Instant approval decision
  • – Secure and straightforward checkout

Ready to go? Add this product to your cart and select a plan during checkout. Payment plans are offered through our trusted finance partners Klarna, PayTomorrow, Affirm, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. No-credit-needed leasing options through Acima may also be available at checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Free shipping on this product

30-day refund/replacement

To qualify for a full refund, items must be returned in their original, unused condition. If an item is returned in a used, damaged, or materially different state, you may be granted a partial refund.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

Availability: Only 2 left in stock, order soon!
Fulfilled by Amazon
Arrives Tuesday, Nov 26
Order within 1 hour and 33 minutes
Available payment plans shown during checkout

Description

'Exquisitely written and addictively dark. Sheer perfection' Clare Mackintosh The Swimming Pool is the gripping, twisty thriller from the author of the breath-taking Our House . . . 'I can't take my eyes off the water. Can you?' It's summer when Elm Hill lido opens, having stood empty for years. For Natalie Steele - wife, mother, teacher - it offers freedom from the tightly controlled routines of work and family. Especially when it leads her to Lara Channing, a charismatic former actress with a lavish bohemian lifestyle, who seems all too happy to invite Natalie into her elite circle. Soon Natalie is spending long days at the pool, socializing with new friends and basking in a popularity she didn't know she'd been missing. Real life, and the person she used to be, begins to feel very far away. But is such a change in fortunes too good to be true? Why are dark memories of a summer long ago now threatening to surface? And, without realizing, could Natalie have been swept dangerously out of her depth? 'A clever, claustrophobic thriller' Fabulous Magazine 'A compulsive psychological thriller that will give you shivers' Sunday Mirror 'Tautly plotted - a psychological drama with edge' Good Housekeeping 'Will keep you hooked with unexpected twists and turns until the end' Candis Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Michael Joseph (August 23, 2016)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 6


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 76


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 1.21 x 7.79 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #907,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6,563 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #14,370 in Psychological Thrillers (Books) #49,820 in Women's Literature & Fiction


#6,563 in Psychological Fiction (Books):


#14,370 in Psychological Thrillers (Books):


Frequently asked questions

If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Tuesday, Nov 26

Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

  • Klarna Financing
  • Affirm Pay in 4
  • Affirm Financing
  • Afterpay Financing
  • PayTomorrow Financing
  • Financing through Apple Pay
Leasing options through Acima may also be available during checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Similar Products

Top Amazon Reviews

    • A good read
Good character development. Good twists even though the LAST twist is a bit unnecessary - the ending was ready very good. Good read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2017 by Amelia
    • I love the author
I love the author. She is a great writer. This is definitely one of her best and a great summer read. I read it last summer so I am a bit slow to post. But the story draws you in and you can picture it all unfolding and it is a page turner.
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2017 by lovetoread
    • Takes too long to find its feet
Natalie and Ed have been married 16 years. They're both teachers and they have one child, 13 year old Molly, who has a phobia about water. When the local swimming pool opens, Natalie starts attending and gets to know mega-glam, mega-wealthy, Lara. To her delight, Lara welcomes Natalie into her circle of friends with open arms. Soon Natalie is hanging out with Lara on a daily basis, ignoring the rifts that this creates with her former friends and her husband. However tension is simmering. We know from the prologue and also from the sub-plot, set a few weeks in the future, that drama is not far away. We know that Natalie has secrets from her past that she hasn't even told her husband. We sense, even if Natalie doesn't, that Lara's dazzling attentions are too good to be true. What we don't know is where the danger will come from. Will it comes from Molly's phobia? From Natalie's past? From Lara's hidden motivations? Or somewhere else entirely? This is the second book I've read by Louise Candlish and she has a highly readable style that pulls you right in. However the storyline in this instance is less compelling than in "The Sudden Departure of the Frasers". It takes a very long time to get going. The tension simmers along but not a lot happens until the final third of the book. In the final third there are pleasing twists and discoveries, but you have to be patient to get to them. I suspect that Candlish realised this problem and that's why she added the prologue which is (minor spoiler, minor spoiler) highly misleading and really annoyed me when I realized how it fitted into the story. Did I like this book? Sort of. It's not bad, it's just far too drawn out, with insufficient payoff for the reader when it all comes together. Plus I came to really dislike Natalie our narrator, which doesn't particularly help. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2016 by Julia Flyte
    • An engaging and unpredictable story
I read each page of this book with great curiosity, because it was not the usual thriller with a dark and dramatic atmosphere where somebody eventually dies. Aside from the prologue, “The Swimming Pool” brings you into the life of Natalie, a normal woman with a husband and a teenage daughter, who lives an extraordinary experience: make friends with Lara Channing, a local celebrity. She is thrown into an artificial environment that attracts her more and more, leading her to overlook her old friends and family. What’s behind this interest from Lara about her? The great thing about this book is that you don’t have the slightest idea of where it will end up. What is the conflict that defines it? Does it concern Natalie, her husband, her daughter or Lara? Or someone else? Well, every day I was anxiously waiting for the moment to immerse myself in it to find out what would happen next. The characters are well built and the plot is never boring, although there is little action. In retrospect, I realise that this novel is characterized by a very well defined structure that allows the reader not to lose themselves in its three timelines. During the reading, I sensed the author’s efforts to keep my focus on the core of story, preventing me from taking too much notice about the daughter of the protagonist, Molly, but I didn’t realise to what extent this aspect was crucial. Moreover, the ending is the most beautiful thing in the book and made me decide for five stars, instead of the four deserved by the rest of the novel, especially because of the way it creates a parallelism between mother and daughter. This does not mean that “The Swimming Pool” is a perfect novel. I didn’t appreciate the misleading use of the prologue, for example. Attention, spoiler: the prologue is a dream, not a real event. During the reading of the whole book, I was tormenting myself to try to place it in the story, but then I found out that I couldn’t, since it wasn’t a real event. And this was a disappointment. As I said before, the novel is well structured, but at times, it’s too much structured that it looks artificial. The transition between the various timelines seems forced by the need to follow a pattern rather than giving the impression of being spontaneous within the development of the plot, and this distracted me several times from immersing myself into reading. Moreover, the protagonist is overly naïve and weak. It is immediately apparent that Lara has approached her for a reason. In particular, the attitude of the protagonist of feeling always regretful even in the light of the deception she has suffered is irritating. Natalie has an overly low consideration of herself. I expected a reaction from her, revenge. What he had done as a girl could not be compared to the gravity in Lara’s actions, because the latter is an adult. Yet Natalie does not really get angry, she continues to feel guilty. Once I reached the penultimate chapter, which is a long tedious account, I feared the story would implode. But then this is unexpectedly saved by the last chapter and I’m sorry that no more space was given to Molly, whose character is certainly much more interesting than her mother’s is. Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli, author of Kindred Intentions ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017 by Anakina

Can't find a product?

Find it on Amazon first, then paste the link below.