The Girl On The Train – Paula Hawkins

Out January 15th

Simple premise (you’ve probably heard it by now) – girl on the same train every day, sees the same couple every day, then one day sees something which, as the woman is reported missing the next night, could affect the police investigation.

Now, it’s not Rear Window – she (Rachel) doesn’t see a murder; it’s a much smaller thing than that. But, as she obsessively follows newspaper accounts of the search for Megan, the missing woman, she begins to realise her piece of information could give the police a new – possibly crucial – line of enquiry.

But let’s rewind – as the book does – and learn a little more about Rachel. She is an alcoholic, having begun drinking when all attempts at having a child with her husband Tom failed. Tom had an affair, in despair at Rachel’s drinking and (sometimes) violence towards him. The new woman (Anna) gets pregnant, so he gets rid of Rachel, moves Anna in, and Rachel ends up living in an old university friend’s spare room. But, in order to get to her job (which she in reality lost months earlier, due to her drinking, but is ashamed/afraid to tell her flatmate Cathy) she still catches the same train to and from London every morning and evening. This passes her old house, where Tom and Anna now happily live with their new baby. But rather than look at their house – her old home – she focuses on the one belonging to the missing woman and her husband, who she sees as having a perfect life. She gives them names (Jess and Jason), imagines their jobs – watching them every day, to the extent she feels she almost knows them. So when Megan/Jess disappears, as well as telling the police what she knows, she takes the opportunity to contact Jason (in reality Scott) with her information, in order to try to insert herself into his – seemingly perfect (apart from the missing wife, obviously!) life. Because, of course, she doesn’t have one of her own. But what looks perfect on the outside may not be so wonderful upon closer examination…

However, Rachel could be more involved in what happened than just seeing something from a train window. Because she was there, at the station underpass at the end of the street, around the time Megan went missing. She went there with the intention of seeing Tom, her ex, of whom she can’t seem to let go, much to Anna’s distress. And she recalls being there, with blood on her hands. But because of her drinking, she can’t remember. If only she could recall what happened. Did she hurt Megan? Did she see her that night?

The book is told from the viewpoint of the three women in the story; initially it’s alternate chapters, from Rachel and Megan, then Anna gives her side of the story. It also bounces about time-wise, in order for us to learn about the lead up to Megan’s disappearance, when, for reasons she won’t share with Scott, she’s struggling to sleep, and so begins seeing a therapist, Dr Kamal Abdic. But where is she? Is she dead? Did her husband – always the first suspect – kill her? Or someone else?  Has she been abducted, by someone she knows, or a stranger? Or has she disappeared? Alone, or with a lover? I’m not telling…

I’ve read some reviews of this book which describe Rachel as utterly unlikeable. But, to be quite honest, none of the small cast of this book come out smelling of roses…Rachel has a lot of problems – her drinking, her obsession with Tom, her lies to Cathy about her job…But as we learn more about her past life, her drink problem becomes understandable (if not excusable.) But, without revealing too much, in my humble opinion, she more than redeems herself at the end of the story, unlike the rest of our (pretty horrid) cast of characters.

This book will clearly be massive: it’s a fast moving, cleverly devised, well-paced psychological thriller, with lots of red herrings. But it’s the literary equivalent of a bag of crisps – you know it’s not very good for you, but it’s very tasty at the time. As ever, I had a good guess at whodunit – whatever “it” turned out to be – and I was right, but I didn’t get the motive – and tbh that was just dumb luck, as Hawkins was smart enough to leave it open to go any number of ways. Expect to see this book all over the place this year.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.