ADRIFT

A dive gone wrong forces a normally grounded diver to open her mind to the possibility of supernatural interference.

Now that she’s left the academic world, Dr. Meredith Cavallo works as a crew member and diver on the LunaSea out of Key Largo. Mer surfaces after a routine dive only to discover that her diving party has grown by one: a mystery man in a life vest whom she must rescue. Safely back on shore after pulling the man into the boat, Mer learns that Rob Price is a diver who claims to have been exploring the supposedly haunted Spiegel Grove five miles away from where she rescued him. Mer is suspicious of the time Rob spent in the water and the distance he covered. There’s no way he could have ended up so far from his dive site in such a short time. And she has other reasons to be suspicious. Rob insists he’s being chased by a ghostly presence. Although skeptical, Mer can’t decide whether she should let herself be annoyed by Rob’s antics or just shrug them off, and her bosses are glad of the extra business the attention brings their dive shop. Enter Ishmael Styx, a ghost hunter interested in the haunting and willing to lay down a lot of cash to hire Mer as the safety diver of a proposed night dive. Wary of Ishmael and his interest in the supernatural, Mer agrees—and regrets her choice when Ishmael goes missing during the dive. Determined to save her reputation for leaving no diver behind, Mer has to figure out if Ishmael’s disappearance is the work of worldly or otherworldly forces.

Browning’s debut can verge on cliché, and she seems reluctant to flesh out her supporting cast, but the main action of the story flows smoothly.