The Other Passenger

Oh my, what an absolute whirlwind The Other Passenger is. Just when you think you’ve sussed everything out Louise Candlish grabs the rug beneath your feet with both hands and yanks it from under you.

I’m grateful that I was able to read this book in one sitting as it pulled me in and gripped tight hold of me until I’d read every last twist and turn. Then the ending made me want to punch the air with a resounding YES!!!

The story focuses on the relationship between two couples Jamie and Clare who are the haves and Kit and Melia are the have nots. The story is told from Jamie’s point of view and highlights the generational differences between the couples with Kit and Melia expecting everything on a plate and Jamie and Clare being well off. The book also focuses on the disparity between Jamie and Clare’s marriage too and throws up some interesting problems for them because her family are rich and whilst she works hard she could be seen as having a privileged life handed to her on a plate. Each of these points is entwined together to produce a compelling plot with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Deliciously wicked, intelligently written and bloody brilliant.

Louise Candlish is an excellent author and I was very excited to be given the opportunity to read and review this by the author, publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Other Passenger starts at an excellent pace and there are twists and turns from the outset. Two couples - Jamie and Clare (in their 40’s) and Kit and Melia (in their 20’s) become unlikely friends and their lives become entwined together and as couples; not necessarily with their own partners.
Jamie and Kit become unlikely travelling companions on the London river boat and Clare and Melia work together. Jamie and Kit meet another two commuters and they become The Water Rats, meeting on the boat daily.
Jamie and Melia start an affair, which seems unlikely and dangerous but Kit is unstable and a drug user and Clare seems to not notice the change.
Without giving away the plot, which is so twisted and convoluting it is genius, everything and everyone is not as they seem. The ending is completely unexpected and I was gasping at some of the decisions made by the central characters.
5 star read from me. Thoroughly recommend this book.

An excellent thriller as usual from this author. A good slow reveal at a good pace throughout. Thank you for letting me read this title.

The one thing I love about Louise Candlish and her writing is that you think you know where the story is leading and she hits you with surprising twist after surprising twist.

The Other Passenger certainly delivered that and more. The characters were so detailed, I felt like I was watching them all from afar. An entertaining and fast paced read.

Another great book by Louise cavendish. Two couples become friends. Jamie and kit share the morning commute together and Melia and Clare work for the same company but how honest is the friendship. There are so many twists and turns in this book just as I thought I had it so it twisted again. Highly recommend this book

Really enjoyed this book. Didn’t see a couple of the twists within it. Managed to read it in a couple of sittings as it kept me hooked right till the end. It is well written and flows really well, despite going between differing times, It’s dark and edgy and makes you dislike certain characters, yet really like others, but opinions constantly change! It’s quite a slow build but when it does it grabs you in and keeps you in until the end, even after it finishes you want to know what happens again.

Louise Candlish is fast becoming one of my top 3 authors!

This book is good. Really good. It has a real edgy tension and is quite a dark read. Like any good psychological thriller it has you wondering throughout what is going on with its clever twists and turns. As you’re reading the book you get a real sense of impending doom that you just can’t get away from. Questioning the whole time who is the reliable witness? Who do you trust?

Jamie has just started travelling to work with his new friend on the riverboat so no more claustrophobic commuter trains for them. Until one day Jamie’s friend Kit doesn’t make it in time for the morning boat. The Police, who are waiting for Jamie at his stop, inform Jamie that he was the last known person to have seen Kit before his disappearance. Jamie is happy to be questioned because he knows he’s innocent...

I really enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley for my ARC, it’s been a great twisty book to get caught up in. It is similar to Our House, and definitely gets you hooked from the beginning. Definitely recommend.

“How much is your life worth… To someone else?”

L.C has done it yet again folks. “The Other Passenger” tells the story of Jamie and Clare a couple in their late forties who are friends with millennials Kit and Melia. Jamie is feeling pretty smug, now that he has a season ticket to travel to work along the Thames by riverboat, avoiding the horrendous gridlock London traffic. Jamie, with Kit get the drinks in on their evening commutes home after their long days. All is well. Until the first day back after Christmas and Kit isn’t on the morning boat. Everything else seems the same. But something isn’t right. When Jamie disembarks, the police are waiting for him. Melia, Kits wife has reported him missing and another passenger has witnessed Jamie having a blazing row with Kit on the last boat home after Christmas drinks. It seems the police have reason to believe that Jamie had reasons to lash out at Kit. But he’s innocent right? Or is he? L.C’s plot devices and sharp plot twists are unmatched in her latest book “The Other Passenger”, so much so it’s taken me almost 24 hours to get my feelings together for this review. Candlish has a way of taking relatively normal people, and situations to create something so suspenseful you will not believe what happens from one page to the next. As always, you think you have worked out the story, the twists but something that L.C has mastered beautifully is the art of the unanticipated turn of events, the curveball, the bombshell which will leave you open mouthed and like me only just picking up my jaw from the floor.

What I loved most about “The Other Passenger” other than it being a welcome distraction in these dark and unprecedented times, is how different the characters were from Louise’s previous books “Our House” and “Those People” because as with a lot of authors who have enjoyed huge acclaim, it can be all too easy to recycle characters, but by now L.C knows her craft and has created a world so relatable, but so unbelievably crazy you’d have to read to believe. The age old question of “Do you know the difference between right and wrong?” is tested in many ways, the human behavior of how people will bend those rules to serve them, and justify their behavior is something I really adore about L. C’s writing style which she explores beautifully. We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. But as with everything, every action has an equal opposite reaction. And boy, this book has plenty to offer in terms of suspense and building up one hell of a momentum until a hugely satisfying finale and epilogue.

“The Other Passenger” to conclude, is a welcome ray of light in these dark times. It’s due for release 25 June.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster UK for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.

In all honesty there isn't really anything I enjoyed about this book... it's a very slow build and takes quite a long time to get going imo. I hated almost every character in this book, and yes I get that some characters are written to be unlikeable but you've got to throw me a bone and make someone vaguely likeable to make me want to carry on reading but alas there just wasn't any of that here.

Jamie is honestly one of the worst characters and there is just nothing redeeming about him. He comes across as both creepy and entitled throughout the book and it felt fairly obvious to me that he was being set up throughout the book because it just felt fairly obvious. I didn't guess that there were going to be two double crosses but for me it just got to the point that there were too many twists that it caused me to lose interest. I am getting a bit tired of thriller books that are like, TWIST HERE, TWIST THERE, TWIST EVERY WHERE!!!

Also, there were so many negative comments about young adults in this book; I know it was meant to be reflective of Jamie and his wife's perspective of them but it just felt so repetitive and got to be a bit grating at times in all honesty.

I felt that the plot was so OTT and unbelieveable and it just kept getting more over the top and dramatic that it was hard to keep up with it. I will say that this was an easy reader but other than that there wasn't much I enjoyed.

Out 25th June so you can make your own mind up then!

Louise Candlish is one of my top 5 authors of all time....and her newest continues her trend of writing "must read" books. I loved the suspense and her usual masterful storytelling. Can't wait to buy the hardback of this and display it proudly on my shelf with the others! 5 stars and 2 thumbs up.

Wow, I thought "Those People" by this author was excellent but surprisingly this surpasses that book.

Jamie Buckby and Clare a middle aged couple reasonably settled financially thanks mainly to Clare's job and her owning a house given to her by her parents meet a couple, Kit and Melia 20 years younger and struggling to survive in London. Melia works with Clare, and Jamie and Kit who both work in the City Of London take a ferry each day where they also befriend 2 other commuters.

This book is written from the perspective of Jamie and switches between the period they meet at the beginning of the year until New Years Eve 2019.

The group of friends had been out for a drink on 23rd December and thenJamie and Clare go to Scotland for Christmas. On their return Jamie catches the ferry on 27th December 2019 to return to work and is met off the ferry by two detectives as Kit has not been seen since the night they went for drinks an Jamie is the last to see him.

This a real page turner full of twists and as the story unfolds I thought "I didn't see that coming". Then I read on and again think "I didn't see that coming" again. I could not put this book down.

I could not recommend this book more highly and will certainly read more and I am looking forward to her next novel "The Other Couple" due out later this year the release date as yet unknown. This author is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. 

I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the ARC for a true and fair review

Overall I enjoyed this, although I think I'm still expecting all Candlish's books to be as good as 'our house'. I felt in the middle the pace slowed down a little too much but picked up again and was cleverly thought out and carried out.

Wow!

I read The Sudden Departure of the Frasers earlier this year and knew I needed to read more by Louise Candlish - The Other Passenger certainly didn't disappoint.

Full of twists, turns and edge of your seat moments, this is a must read.

One thing that struck me was that I found none of the characters to be particularly likeable yet I still couldn't put the book down - a testament to Candlish's writing if ever there was one.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this, I found it as good as the other book by Candlish that I read. I liked how everything unravelled and how I guessed some of the twists but others were total red herrings. I didn't really like any of the main characters but I tihnk that's part of the point!

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is not my usual genre, therefore am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The story of a middle aged couple and their twisted friendship with a much younger couple. Kit Roper commutes with Jamie by boat. One morning, Jamie is confronted by two police officers. Kit has been reported missing and Jamie is in the frame.

For me this was a real book of two halves. To begin with, I found it really hard to get into. I wasn’t particularly convinced by the growing friendship between the couples, nor the other relationships encountered between characters.

I’m so glad I persevered because the second half was thrilling; twisty, dark and clever. I didn’t see the twists coming and the plot was very well executed and slick.

I would definitely recommend this. Worth persevering, it will have you absolutely gripped!

*I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Hooked from the moment I started reading. This is Louise Candlish at her very best. Always a fan of her books but this one may just be my favourite (hard to pick really!) I couldn’t put it down and was kept guessing throughout, I had inklings but never the full story, which is important, nothing worse when you can figure everything out early doors.
I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of the storyline, I don’t want to give anything away, but it will open your eyes to what people are capable of when they are under the influence of outside influences.
An interesting mix of inter-generational characters, nobody that I could especially relate with personally, but I enjoyed delving into their viewpoints, lifestyles and I felt empathy for some more than others. A great mix of threads to highlight the selfish desires of some, the hard-working innocence of others and the egotistical members of society who think they are owed more than they work for. So very well written by the author who weaves them all together so well.
It is a fun read, not exactly the faced paced thrill but clever and very interesting. Highly recommended. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Telling the story of two couples, Clare and Jamie, and Melia and Kit. How they meet and interact and looking at how they deal with the generational differences. When Jamie and Melia start an affair and then Kit goes missing, things are not all they seem. This is another excellent work by this author. Louise Candlish has a very easy writing style. There is a certain rhythm to her writing that is quite unique. I am fairly sure I could read some of her work without knowing it was hers and recognise the author. Her characters spring to life, the final twist is surprising and original. Really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to others. If you haven't read any of her other work and enjoyed this one, I would suggest you go to "Our House" and "Those People" next. Will certainly be reading more of her work.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. I’ve loved Louise’s previous books, so was looking forward to this, and in true Louise Candlish style this was a fun, quick read one would expect.
This is narrated from the POV of Jamie, a 48-year old man who works as a barista and relies on the earnings of his girlfriend, with whom he’s been for a decade and lives in her glorious Georgian house. Following a panic attack on the tube Jamie takes the river-bus to work in Waterloo from St Mary’s (I suspect a fictional area in South London, near Woolwich). On his commute he’s usually accompanied by Kit, who also lives in St Mary’s. However one morning after Boxing Day Kit doesn’t turn up on the river-bus and then Jamie is accosted by the police, who want to ask him questions about Kit, who’s been reported missing by his wife, Melia...
Alternating with flashbacks to the year before we see how Jamie met Kit and Melia, through his girlfriend Clare - Melia has just started working in Clare’s letting company - and the young couple live in the same area. Even though Jamie and Clare are in their 40s, and Kit and Melia in their early 30s, they become a foursome of sort with Clare taking on a a type of older sister role. Although their relationship fractures due to Kit’s resentment of how much easier the older generation had it and his own dire financial situations, ramped up with debt, and soon things are complicated when Jamie embarks on an affair with Melia. But does this mean Jamie was impassioned enough to have killed Kit?...And what did the two fight about the last evening they took the river-bus?...
Plot-wise this was a slightly typical domestic thriller read. The story was predictable and even though there were a few reveals I didn’t see coming, most of the twists in the story were easy to spot. Despite this I found The Other Passenger a compelling read for two main reasons:
* the setting. I wasn’t aware there were river-buses (and I’ve lived in London my whole life!) so I found the commute aspect of this book innovative in this genre. I loved the writing and description of London’s scenery. It gave the novel a wonderful atmosphere, which I found absorbing and easy to fall into, the perfect escape read while I’m self-isolating in this difficult time.
* The characters, their relationship and banter. Some of my favourite scenes are when the couples are having dinner or drinks and talking about work, property, money and life. There is a strong aspect of classism here and I found their dialogues gripping and emotionally truthful. Also, the characters are so well-developed and the way they play off each other, every word loaded with tension simmering underneath their suburban facades. Candlish excels at this: showing the cracks behind these middle-class lives.
Although the ending could’ve been wrapped earlier (I felt like Jamie’s last couple of chapters went on for too long), and the second half was slightly predictable, nonetheless this was a fun, read with well-developed characterisation and acidic dialogues. Give this try if you’re looking for some escapism. 4/5.