The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. 

Just goes to show.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together.

Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn't have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself.

Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there.

 

My Thoughts:

 

The story is told through the voices of three women; Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel travels on the train every day, looking out of the window at the house she once shared with her ex husband Tom. He now lives there with second wife Anna and their young daughter, living the life Rachel always wanted, but hers is now a mess. A few doors away lives Megan, who Rachel often sees from the train out on her terrace. Rachel invents a life and name for Megan but when the latter goes missing Rachel becomes heavily involved in trying to find out the truth.

 

I read a lot of psychological thrillers, it's a genre that I love and The Girl On The Train is one of the best I've read in a while. This book isn't published until January but is already receiving a lot of hype and I'm pleased to say that it more than lives up to and deserves all the attention it is receiving. The twists and turns and facts gradually revealed about all the characters lives made it difficult to put the book down. I was tightly gripping hold of the book for the last fifty pages as the suspense had built up to such a level that I couldn't wait to find out what would happen in the end. I'm pleased to say that the ending kept me guessing. 

 I can't see this book being anything other than a big success, and Paula Hawkins is an author whose future publications I shall now always look out for.

 

Rating: 5 out of 5

 

Thank you to Alison Barrow at Transworld for a copy of this novel.