Archaeology professor Rebecca Wilding is facing difficult times at her Victorian university, Coastal, when this first novel by Australian screenwriter and director Ann Turner opens.

Rebecca, like other department heads, has to make personnel cuts as the university's austerity program kicks in and she is finding this upsetting: who goes, who stays? But her husband and colleague, Stephen, is unfazed about having to shed staff in the economics faculty, making for an uncomfortable atmosphere at home.

Rebecca is also beginning to suspect Stephen may be having an affair with her boss, Coastal's Dean of Arts, the glamorous and flirtatious Priscilla Chiton. As if cuts and suspicions weren't enough, Rebecca is accused of serious fraud of her department's Athens bank account, which she established.

Despite these problems, she determines to continue with plans to deliver a lecture in Paris, after first visiting Greece and Italy with Stephen, who is due to present a paper at a Capri conference.

When the story moves from Australia to Europe, Turner really ups the action, pace and mystery, taking her narrative from a light but intriguing tale to one of weight, drama and tension. From here, one soon appreciates why The Lost Swimmer has been described as reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley.

In Athens, Rebecca tries unsuccessfully to unravel the bank-account imbroglio and learns in economically battered Greece the bribe can be a necessary currency. On Crete, she thinks she may have seen Stephen with suspected romantic rival Priscilla. So much then for her hopes of re-engaging her husband's affections?

On Italy's Amalfi Coast, where the idyllic and spectacularly scenic surrounds should offer her some respite, Rebecca, instead, has to confront the emerging possibilities of Stephen dangerously dabbling in shares with their joint finances; siphoning her personal money; being involved in the Athens account problem; and having again been seen with Priscilla.

Stepping unsettlingly from the Amalfi background are a particularly abrasive hotel waiter and a highly unpleasant grotto boatman, dubbed the "White Spider" by Rebecca. An apt choice, given the increasingly tangled web she is caught in.

The web tightens further when Stephen disappears, apparently while swimming, and Rebecca comes under suspicion of being the cause by a zealous police officer. Rebecca, though, manages to reach Paris where she hopes to uncover the truth and clear her name.

In the best thriller traditions, this exciting novel's end-game contains an unexpected twist.