The people who can commission custom super yachts are not plentiful in my social circle. Neither are the people behind the design and construction of those luxury ocean vehicles. Could a story centered around such characters really hold my interest, make me care, for 357 pages?

Apparently, in the hands of a talented author like Barbara Nickless, the answer is a resounding yes.

I should have known. Nickless made her debut with Blood on the Tracks, the first in the Sydney Rose Parnell mystery series, in 2016, and just seems to get better with every book she writes. (The Drowning Game is her eighth novel.)

One of the author’s formidable strengths is her ability to craft a believable, flawed, female lead that people can relate to on a variety of levels. I’ve never been a debutante, never had voice or ballet lessons and never attended prestigious private schools. But I understand navigating family dynamics, knowing what things can be said and what must be left unsaid. I know what it’s like to lose a sibling. I know how that can darken your view of the world, the overwhelming feeling of numbness. I understand how loss of a loved one can lead you to make different evaluations and decisions for your own life.

Another strength Nickless displays is crafting characters that don’t fall into shallow stereotypes or tropes, which is especially difficult once the word “Nazi” comes into play. Nobody is drawn as a flawless paragon of virtue, nor a seething personification of evil. Characters, even secondary, are human, with backstories that draw the reader in, make you nod your head and think, “yes, I understand that,” even if you don’t agree with their decisions.

The settings in The Drowning Game are so richly drawn, you’ll be sweating in the pervasive humidity of Singapore along with the characters, or shivering in the rain in the Pacific Northwest. In Singapore, Austria or Monaco, you’ll know the feel of the pathways under your feet, the intimate scents of the cities from the street vendors to the hallowed halls of high rise office buildings.

While the book initially feels like a police procedural, it quickly accelerates into an increasing taut thriller. Sisters Nadia and Cass Brenner, grew up living and breathing Ocean House, a custom yacht-building company that has been tended by their family for generations, springing from pre-World War II Austria. The company’s success, and continued existence, is closely entwined with their launch of a mega yacht for a Chinese billionaire. Cass is leading the team in Singapore, and Nadia is sent to lend support as the vital commissioning deadline draws near.

But when Nadia lands in sweltering Singapore, she’s greeted at the airport by her sister’s assistant. She’s ushered into an air-conditioned SUV, where the assistant delivers the news—Cass is dead. She fell to her death from the 40th floor of an expensive hotel.

The Singapore police are quick to label Cass’s death a suicide, especially when they find an apparent suicide note as a letter addressed to Nadia. But Nadia feels certain her sister would never take her own life, and wonders at the differences between the Cass she knows and the woman who showed up at that hotel. She sees more than one meaning behind the words in the letter, and begins to investigate what Cass was really trying to tell her.

Almost immediately after identifying Cass’s body, Nadia visits her sister’s office and then tours Red Dragon, the super yacht. She immediately notes some discrepancies between the plans and the actual build, but doesn’t know who she can trust with her questions and suspicions.

The Brenner family motto, “Trust no one,” turns prophetic, as it turns out more than one Chinese government agency is keeping an eye on Nadia, along with the CIA and a man carrying a decade-olds grudge against the yacht’s owner. Everyone has their own agenda, and everyone is plying Nadia with a different blend of half-truths and lies to serve their own purpose. Some of their motives are grand in scale, encompassing party politics, national pride and saving global face. Others are merely trying to protect their families in the only way they know how, or to exact revenge.

As the story progresses, Nadia must confront conflicting demands from members of her family, her work and her employees, her country and her own conscience. Once she uncovers the secrets behind Cass’s seemingly unusual actions, Nadia must decide whether to follow the path her sister took or turn a blind eye to situations neither of them created or could have prevented. If she does follow her sister’s path, will she have the inner strength and resolve to pull it off? Or will she wind up on her own journey down from a luxury hotel’s high balcony?