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58 pages 1 hour read

Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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Chapters 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 19 Summary

Lo stops at her cabin to eat the sandwich left for her, to get her strength back. She is still feeling sick, but forces the food down, all the while thinking about who does and does not have an alibi. She tries the internet again, but it's still not connecting. She wonders, with a shudder, if the internet has been intentionally disconnected so she can't call for help. She then leaves to see Richard Bullmer.

At Lord and Lady Bullmer's cabin, Lo knocks, and is startled to see Lady Bullmer inside. Lady Bullmer is crying, and wipes away tears, a bit indignant that Lo is standing there. Lo feels uncomfortable, and asks to speak to Richard (Lord Bullmer), but Lady Bullmer tells Lo that he is in the hot tub with Lars and a few other friends. She tells Lo to find him at dinner, and asks to take a message. Lo declines, and feels uncomfortable–she can't help fixating on Lady Bullmer's gaunt face. Lo makes her way to the hot tub on the upper deck, where she finds Cole, Chloe, Lars, and Lord Bullmer. The fog is so thick she can barely see them. She is invited into the hot tub, but declines, deciding instead to begin telling Lord Bullmer what happened. He encourages her to talk in front of the crowd, but as she tells her story, Cole Lederer drops a champagne glass and cuts his hand wide open. Chloe feels faint, and everyone exits the hot tub so Cole can get bandaged up and Chloe can rest. Lord Bullmer asks Lo to meet him in the dining room, where they can talk about what she witnessed. 

Chapter 20 Summary

Lo meets with Lord Bullmer in the dining room, and the pair spend a long time going over every minute detail of Lo's story. Bullmer asks her questions over and over, like a policeman, with a stoic seriousness. Lo is shocked that he doesn't reveal his emotions, then realizes that with his penchant for business, it makes sense that he is accustomed to these kinds of difficult conversations. Lo asks Bullmer to divert the boat before they get to Trondheim, but he tells her that he will have to speak with the Captain and Nilssen before he makes that decision. Lo tells Bullmer about Nilssen's argument that her story isn't believable because of her depression medication and mental illness. Bullmer apologizes for Nilssen's behavior, and Lo leaves feeling like she's been taken seriously.

As she returns to her room to dress for dinner, Lo runs into Ben, who seems to fill the entire hallway. Lo updates him on her conversation with Bullmer, realizing as she talks that Bullmer made very few promises–everything he said was qualified on proof that Lo’s story is accurate. Lo tells Ben that she plans to talk with a police officer in Trondheim, despite the fact that the crime likely won't be able to be investigated by them if it took place in British or international waters. Ben encourages her to keep her head, and holds her door open in a way that isn't threatening, but stops Lo from closing the door behind her. Ben then tells Lo that during the bustle in the hot tub, after Cole's injury, the camera had fallen in the water and destroyed all his photos. Lo is devastated, but excuses herself and goes out onto the deck to check for phone service and get a breath of fresh air. The air is cold outside; Lo remembers that they are nearly in the Arctic Circle.

Chapter 21 Summary

Lo begins to make herself up for dinner, and renews her confidence. She thinks about her desire to be an investigative reporter, and wonders what had led her to become the kind of person that shies away from an obvious case. She blows steam on the bathroom mirror, mocking the intruder who left her threatening messages in the spa, and writes, defiantly, “NO.”

Karla knocks on the door, inviting Lo to dinner, and Lo uses the opportunity to speak to Karla privately about any information she might have. Karla looks upset, and Lo presses her, but Karla insists that she is only upset because Nilsson has informed the staff that Lo is delusional. Karla tells her that she relies on the money from this job, and will struggle to find another, and then mentions in passing that someone might have smuggled a friend on board the boat. Lo grabs her arm to try to question her further, but Karla disappears up the hallway. At dinner, Lo sits beside Tina and Owen White. She overhears them talking about Owen deciding not to invest in the Aurora, because it didn't fit his investment profile, but reassures Tina that Lord Bullmer has “deep pockets.” Halfway through dinner, Cole arrives, raving drunk and with his hand bandaged. He begins to rant about losing his photos, and confirms the SD card likely can't be recovered. Cole also talks to her about some of the earlier photos, at a gentleman's club where Archer, Alexander, and Lord Bullmer were present.

At the end of dinner, Lo talks to Owen about his work, and his relationship to Solberg, the man who had to cancel at the last moment. Apparently, Solberg had also been the subject of a break-in. As she walks away from Owen, Lo is confronted by Ben, who is angry that she has been avoiding him. She accuses him of lying to her, and then disappears back to her cabin. Ben then confronts her in the hallway, and they get into an argument. Ben is upset that Lo would think him a murderer. Lo disengages and locks herself in her room to relax and take a bath. Once she gets out of the bath, however, she discovers that her phone has been stolen, and a wet footprint is stamped in her carpet near the veranda. Lo realizes that her veranda door doesn't lock from the outside, and that her room is completely open to any intruder willing and able to climb over the privacy screen separating her veranda from the one next door.

The section ends with screenshots of an amateur sleuth forum online. A number of people are speculating about Lo's disappearance, and suggest that either Ben or Judah committed the possible murder. Another person suggests suicide. Judah finds the forum and reports it to the site’s admins, who delete the thread. 

Chapters 19-21 Analysis

The predominant theme in these chapters is the idea of toxic or volatile masculinity. Though in earlier sections the aggressive behavior of the male characters on the ship was hinted at, in these sections, nearly all of the men appear threatening. Cole, who has previously been described as having sharp, wolfish incisors that give him a threatening appearance, arrives drunk to dinner and causes a scene. Archer is furious when Hanna the waitress refuses his advances, after he backs her into a corner. Even Ben, who in previous sections has been kind to Lo, bangs on her door and confronts her in the hallway. Ben is manipulative, and tries to convince Lo that she is being irrational, negating any previous conversations about her believability. Ben is also eerily interested in Lo's conversation with the police, leaving the reader with the sensation that he has something to hide.

Lady Bullmer, who in previous sections has been ghostlike and at the edge of events in the narrative, comes to dinner without Lord Bullmer. Lo finds her later in the hallway, weak and on her way to bed, and she makes a comment about the exhausting nature of socializing and “performance.” Lady Bullmer, in this moment, becomes a symbol of the sickly atmosphere of this ship, and the exhaustingly performative nature of the entire cruise. Though all other characters are doing their best to hide their imperfections and suspicions–Chloe with makeup, other characters with lies and a put-on smile–Lady Bullmer represents the sickening truth about the cruise; that it is all smoke and mirrors, just a show to hide the seedy underbelly of international finance, sexual predation, and crime.

Finally, the theme of powerlessness and violated space returns once more, this time in Lo's own cabin. When she discovers that she is no longer safe, and that someone has broken into her room again, Lo returns to the fear and insomnia she experienced in her apartment after the break-in. Lo's powerlessness returns full force, despite her desire to investigate and get to the bottom of this murder, expressed only a few chapters earlier. Though in earlier sections Lo's powerless and inability to find a safe space was hinted at, the realization that intruders can arrive at any time and overtake her solidifies both her reliability as a narrator, and the danger she is in. 

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