“The Woman in Cabin 10” by Ruth Ware: In the beginning of mystery novel, author bolsters her protagonist’s credibility by having her hear voices

The first 44 pages of this mystery novel are about Lo Blacklock’s credibility. She is a thirty-two-year-old writer for a travel magazine, who is about to go on a luxury cruise as an important writing assignment. During the upcoming cruise, she will claim that the woman in cabin 10 has been thrown overboard, but others will claim that cabin 10 had been unoccupied.

Pre-cruise, Lo’s apartment is invaded by a masked burglar, a frightening experience which causes anxiety and insomnia. To cope, even before the burglary, she drinks too much. And when her boyfriend returns to town, and suddenly awakens her from the little sleep she has been able to get, she momentarily confuses him with the burglar and hits him in the face with a lamp.

Lo’s Voices

[After the burglar has slammed her bedroom door in her face] “I wanted to run back to bed, to shove my head under the pillows and cry and cry. But a small, ugly voice in my skull kept saying, He’s still out there. What if he comes back? What if he comes back for you?” (1, pp. 5-6).

“After he’d gone, I made myself a tea and paced the flat…[She felt a sense] of space invaded, a need to reclaim what had been violated. Violated? said a sarcastic little voice in my head. Puh-lease, you drama queen” (1, pp. 11-12).

“…I could see the splintered wood where he’d forced the lock. The miracle was that I hadn’t heard him. Well, what do you expect, you were drunk, after all, said the nasty little voice in my head” (1, p. 16).

“But unwanted images kept intruding…I opened my eyes, but for once the reality check didn’t help…You’re losing it again, my internal voice sniped. You can feel it, can’t you?” (1, pp. 16-17).

Her boyfriend was out of town, “But I had his spare keys in my coat pocket, and I couldn’t face the walk back to my flat. You could get a cab, carped the small, snide voice in the back of my head. It’s not the walk you can’t face. Coward” (1, pp. 23-24).

“Let me think about it,” I said at last, in a voice that didn’t seem to be mine…” (1, p. 28).

Comment

These voices are calm, clever, and rational. They are not intended to be read as pathological, auditory hallucinations, but as Lo’s steady side(s). They are healthy voices that bolster Lo’s credibility.

These voices may or may not be the same voice:

“a small, ugly voice”

“a sarcastic little voice”

“the nasty little voice”

“my internal voice”

“the small, snide voice”

“a voice that didn’t seem to be mine”

It is not clear whether these are different ways of referring to the same voice, or six different voices. But it is explicit that Lo hears voices.

In the sixth example above, the “voice” spoke for itself, either by imposing itself on the host personality from behind-the-scenes or by coming out and speaking for itself, but allowing the host personality to remain co-conscious.

Why would an author seek to bolster her protagonist’s credibility with voices? Because many fiction writers regard such voices as common and normal.

And as a feature of multiple personality trait (the normal version of multiple personality disorder), the rational voices of alternate personalities are normal.

(Search “voice” and “voices” for prior discussions.)

1. Ruth Ware. The Woman in Cabin 10. New York, Scout Press, 2016.