Flight, fight, and benzodiazepine 

The Offing
by Roz Nay

Toronto: Viking, 2024
$24.95 / 9780735248250

Reviewed by Jessica Poon

*

The Offing by Roz Nay is a top-tier thriller worthy of Robyn Harding that I read in two exhilaratingly quick sittings.

Ivy and Regan are two long-time best friends who decide to vacation to Australia, which seems sufficiently far enough for Ivy to escape her tumultuous romantic past with a former professor, the rather fustily named Thatcher Kane. Regan, a model with considerably more wealth than Ivy, generously pays for Ivy’s travel, though this also exacerbates Ivy’s uncomfortable awareness of their wealth discrepancies.

It’s clear that Ivy’s insecure about constantly being outshone by Regan’s beauty, charisma, and affluence. Ivy’s insecurities are so insidious, long-standing, and colossal that I almost yearned for an Actually Ugly Protagonist. If this were a Greek tragedy, her deep insecurity would definitely be her hamartia. Maybe it’s Maybelline; maybe it’s the widespread normalization of body dysphoria. Thatcher Kane may be Ivy’s romantic nadir, but her erstwhile romances have all been depressingly terrible, with a previous ex-boyfriend openly flirting with Regan in Ivy’s presence.

When Ivy describes the initial stages of being seduced by Thatcher under the guise of Miltonic discussions, the ordinary unsophistication of Ivy’s youthful answers being regarded by Thatcher as outstandingly unique, are recoil-inducingly authentic. (Side note: would anyone be able to say “Thatcher” in the throes of passion without laughing?) A young woman, who probably thinks of herself as a girl, unaware of her worth, insecure about both her looks and her intellect, is devastatingly susceptible to the charms of being told how special she is by a reasonably attractive, older but not ancient, learned man with power over her academic future. It’s not the oldest story in the world, but it’s up there. 

When Ivy sees an ad looking for two crew members on a yacht being steered by Christopher, a single father with a precocious daughter and a cat, it seems like the perfect way to evade Thatcher, who has menacingly flown to Australia in search of Ivy. As unsafe as a boat with a strange man might be, Ivy would rather set sail with the devil she doesn’t know, than face the creepy professor she used to bang. Regan is less enthused, but she agrees.

Since no thriller is complete without a spicy love interest, Christopher also hires a cook named Desh, who may well be the novel’s lone person of colour. Much to Ivy’s beguilement, Desh seems to prefer Ivy over Regan. You know there’s real affection when specially made ginger broth is involved. But historically speaking, if a man is interested in Ivy, he’s probably bad news. Maybe Desh is just a player who won’t think twice about throwing a cat overboard for the express purpose of staging an ostentatious rescue. Only an evil person would treat a cat like that, right? And what’s up with Christopher being evasive and weird about his wife? Nelson resident Nay (Hurry Home) does a stellar job of making pretty much every male character seem potentially nefarious.

The novel is predominantly written in present tense, which provides immediacy appropriate for the genre; however, there are also post facto police interviews and articles spliced in between that signify future violence to come. 

Nay knows not only how to create suspense, but also how to maintain it. You have to keep reading to find out whose bloodied arm is detached, and you’ll want to. Nay’s commendable ability to alternate between the present tense and the already determined future without giving anything away, is nothing short of masterful. The ability to withhold information strategically, while also revealing cryptic clues, requires a nimble mind that snobbish readers accustomed to the rather lofty designation of literature should appreciate.

The Offing has a neat ending, perhaps a little too much so for my liking, but it’s a worthwhile choice as a nocturnal accompaniment when you’ve learned your sister’s Netflix account is now off-limits to you, when your dog’s had her last walk, you’ve sworn off the evils of Instagram, you don’t want to read Ulysses and never will, and you just want to have a fiendishly good time. 

*

Originally from East Vancouver, Jessica Poon is a writer, former line cook, and pianist of dubious merit who recently returned to BC after completing a MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. [Editor’s note: Jessica Poon has reviewed books by Anne Fleming, Miriam Lacroix, Taslim Burkowicz, Sam Wiebe, Amy Mattes, Louis Druehl, Sheung-King, Loghan Paylor, Lisa Moore (ed.), Sandra Kelly, Robyn Harding, Ian and Will Ferguson, Christine Lai, Logan Macnair, Jen Sookfong Lee, J.M. Miro (Steven Price), Bri Beaudoin, Tetsuro Shigematsu, Katie Welch, Megan Gail Coles, and Ayesha Chaudhry for BCR]

*

The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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