Review - The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish
Special thanks to Atria Books for my free advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
I love reading thrillers. They’re fast-paced with twisty plots and generally unreliable narrators. Louise Candlish’s The Other Passenger did not disappoint in any of these areas. I devoured it as the author kept me guessing.
Candlish did a great job on characterization in this book. I’m big on believable characters, and I found our four main characters (Jamie, Clare, Kit, and Melia) to be believable, distinct, and well-developed. Although this book was written by a woman and contains strong female characters, our narrator Jamie is a man, and arguably, the most vulnerable of the four. Seeing the story through his eyes gives an interesting spin on the other characters that you wouldn’t get from a third-person perspective.
I also enjoyed the setting of this book. It’s set in London, but centers around a suburban area and Jamie and Kit’s daily commute via river bus. This gives the story a cozy home, while also adding variety in the character dynamics as they venture out from that home base.
The mystery was compelling. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that Kit goes missing and Jamie becomes a suspect in his disappearance. But nothing is as it seems. Jamie slowly unravels the history of the four characters and their relationships, gradually letting the readers in. These relationships are the crux of the novel and it’s difficult to know who to trust.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. Sensitive readers should be aware of adult language, sexual content, and some violence.
The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish is available now.
