I absolutely loved this book and was delighted that it had been my book choice over the Christmas period. Had me fascinated from the start and developed into one of the most refreshingly different and clever thrillers I’ve read for ages.
I’ve not read Louise Candlish before but she is on my “ watch out “ list now. I’ve already told people in my book club to get this book and am very happy to recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great thriller and is looking to be very much entertained

This was the first book by Louise Candlish that I’d read and I really enjoyed it. Jamie and Kit commute together each working day in London by river boat, one day Jamie boards the boat and Kit isn’t there. He’s soon discovers that Kit is missing and the Police believe he was probably the last person to see him alive. Someone apparently witnessed the two of them arguing over Christmas drinks the last time Kit was seen alive and one of the passengers also witnessed them together. Who is the mysterious passenger and why would they say such a thing?
This brilliant book had me hooked to each page with its twists and turns. I loved the different setting and having travelled once on the river boat I could picture the scenes on there so well.
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Omg the book has so many twists and turns you will not be able to put it down it kept me hooked from the first age I flew threw it in a day I stayed up most of the night I had to no who done it but it's not always as it seems I loved it if you like books that keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat you really need to read this book

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I enjoyed reading.
The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish is the story of Jamie and Clare and Kit and Amelia, who are two couples. They meet when Jamie and Kit get the ferry on their way into work each morning and become friends and socialise. Clare has the wealth of their relationship, the wealthy parents, the big house and part owner of an estate agency, whereas Jamie gave up on his well paid job to become a waiter in a coffee shop in the city. Kit and Amelia are younger than the other couple and just run up debt without any thought for the consequences.
Then Jamie and Amelia have an affair and then Melia has an idea that will mean no more debt. This idea has consequences for Kit and Jamie, which neither men had considered when Melia told them her idea. It ends with the death of one of them and imprisonment for the other.
The idea of the storyline was good but the book really dragged in the middle and several times I was going to give up reading. Then the ending of the story took on a new lease of life and became quite engrossing.

This was brilliant, really had me on the edge of my seat! This is my first book by this author, and now I’ll be searching out more.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I’ve just finished this page Turner

Omg so many twists and turns four main people all involved in setting each other up but they just don’t realise it

Clever story plot i don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before

Excellent

I didn’t love this one. I found that the story dragged and I didn’t find the main character likeable in the slightest.
I found it slow paced and not very exciting, as I did other books by this author. Not really one that I would recommend.

Sadly not for me. I thoroughly disliked most of the characters and it meant I couldn’t get invested enough in their story

3.5*
Jamie is very pleased with himself when he starts travelling on the riverboat to get to work. New friends, new sights and scenes as viewed from the Thames. Then one morning his new friend Kit doesn’t turn up and the last person to have seen him was Jamie. As fantastic as the descriptions were of the journeys, there were too many of them and it felt as if I was also on this boat and couldn’t get off. It made the book a slow burner but it sprung to life eventually and how! The 4 main characters were awful, especially Jamie - deluded man. I definitely enjoyed the last quarter of the book very much, especially the ending.

You know what we thriller readers love – twists. This book had so many of them that they took my breath away. Author Louise Candlish was brilliant in the plotting of a wicked mind when she etched these characters

Twister, twister so many twisters. How I loved to be blown away by them.

My mind was a pendulum unable to decide what could have happened to the missing passenger. The book started when Jamie was interrogated by two cops about the disappearance of Kit, his co-traveler whom he had last seen on 23rd December 2019 after a skirmish post drinks.

The story covered the time frame between 23rd to the New year then going back in time when it all began. The characters were believable where Jamie and his partner Claire were in their late 40s and Kit and Melia were the Gen X. The scenes held its authenticity with the viewpoints of the characters.

Midway down the book, everything changed. The author was one crazy cat who made me twang out theories but nothing was concrete. All my theories went flying out of the window. I loved how I was lulled into believing something and then have the rug pulled from under me.

Except in a few places, most of the prose was fast-paced. The story was wickedly scened, the subplots were straightly-curved ™ (yes, that’s a newly coined word by me) and saw me lost me in the vortex of what happened to Kit.

The Other Passenger was one wicked ride and so recommended for thriller-lovers.

Review of
THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for my honest review. I apologise for my tardiness in posting it.

It is the first day back at work after Boxing day 2019, when Jamie Buckby is stopped as he disembark from a Thames River bus by two Met Police detectives. A friend of his is missing, and he increasingly feels that he is their only suspect.

What follows is a skilful web of misdirection from Louise Candlish that had me fooled again and again. The characters were instantly likable (or not). Their relationships were intertwined and believable and it was easy to empathise or feel anger towards them. The winding story was compelling and I felt I would be doing this book a disservice by not reading it in one or two sittings.

Overall I wish I had read this as soon as it appeared in my library and can only thank Louise Candlish for such a good book, hence the five stars. I recommend this to any crime/police thriller enthusiast, and actually to anyone looking for a skilfully written book.

Wow, where do I start with this? I always look forward to new releases from Louise Candlish and she is one of my favourite authors. This latest book did not disappoint. The characters were well developed and the author has a way of plotting her novels such that as a reader, I feel like a character who is a part of the story, observing the events as they unfold. The book was engaging throughout and I read this in two days as I couldn't put it down. Louise's observation of everyday people in everyday life is unrivalled and I actually commented to a friend after reading this that Louise could write a book about people standing in a supermarket queue during lockdown and it would be an instant best-seller!

Having heard great things about Louise Candlish's other books, I was really excited to read this one.
First of all, I was a big fan of the use of flashbacks throughout this. Which isn't something that I say of all books that use this particular structure. But in this case it added so much to the story and the way in which it progressed.
This was an absolute rollercoaster of a read and it had some of the best twists that I've seen in a book this year!
I now can't wait to read more from this author, as a result.
The only reason that I couldn't give it higher than 4 stars was that I found it very difficult to like the characters, particularly the protagonist. It always helps for me to be rooting for or invested heavily in at least one of the characters, hopefully the main one or ones. But that didn't really happen with this book, even though I was completely immersed.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to thank NetGalley for an early copy of this book but unfortunately world chaos erupted before I had chance to finish it, pre-publication, but it was worth the wait.
Jamie travels to work on a river taxi, but one of his friends is not on boat, last having been seen by Jamie after pre-Christmas drinks. When Jamie gets to his stop he is met and interviewed by two plain clothed policemen who ask him about the events leading up to the disappearance. The story progresses in real time as reasons for the disappearance are investigated and in flashback as the backstory is revealed. There are plenty of hints as to where the story may go, who are the good guys, who are the bad. The main protagonists are well written as are the supporting characters, particularly Regan.
I have one of Louise's earlier books on my bedside TBR pile. It has just been moved to the top.

This is my first Louise Candlish book and like many people I enjoyed the various twists and turns. It follows the events of a chance meeting on a commuter boat and the involvement of a young couple, unhappy with their lot in life with an older couple who seemingly ‘have it all’.
While I enjoyed the well-crafted plot, I felt the characters were pretty one-dimensional. That none of them had any redeeming characteristics, apart from Clare, was by the by. Almost playing a starring role itself is London and this was beautifully detailed – and as one reviewer points out it is incredible that no other thrillers have been set on a commuter river boat. Having travelled on them myself they make the perfect backdrop for dark deeds!
However, extremely cleverly crafted and the ending is very good – and actually when you think about it not totally unexpected.
My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for a review copy.

It's a genre trope but it never ceases to surprise me when a thriller pulls out an almighty twist and The Other Passenger pulls off one of the best I've read recently!

I have some other Louise Candlish books but this is the first I've read and if any of those other books hold up as well as this one does then I may have just found a new favourite thriller author.

The structure is what really sells this one for me. I've seen the flashback/time-jumping style done numerous times but it's done so effectively here. It's always hard to discuss exactly why it's done so well, without discussing spoilers from the plot itself, but suffice to say that Louise Candlish has restored my faith in that particular story structure.

Overall, I'm going with 4 stars. The story was great and I enjoyed the twist. The only reason it's not a 5 star review is that I personally find it really difficult to read a book full of characters with next to no redeeming qualities. Again, without spoiling, every single character is extremely difficult to empathise with, even before certain twists are revealed.

I don't need to have "nice" or "good" characters to enjoy a story but I do find it difficult to care about what happens to them when I've built no connection with them as the story has progressed. Also, introducing a mental health/medical condition is not a sufficient means to show depth of character. It may not have been the author's intention to play it like that but it certainly read that way to me and it made me pretty uncomfortable.

It wasn't a major issue by any means but did just drop it from the 5 stars it could have been.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.

Louise writes a great ending! This is such a great book. Loved the setting and the way she writes such interesting characters.
Very interesting storyline and the flashbacks are a good way of telling the reader the background. You'll never take a trip down the Thames without thinking of this book.

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish

I’ve started to think of Louise Candlish as one of my ‘go to’ authors for classy thrillers with unexpected twists. As always she drew me in with the characters, but I wasn’t quite feeling it. I was curious, but I found myself waiting for something to happen. Then there was a moment - if you’ve read it you’ll know where I mean - where everything changed and I realised everything I thought I knew about a character was wrong! After that I had to keep reading, and I kept reading till I finished at 3.20am precisely.

Our narrator is Jamie Buckby, who lives with his partner Clare in a beautiful home near the River Thames. Clare is a partner in an estate agency and Jamie.. well, Jamie is between jobs at the moment. After an incident on the tube made him infamous, he is working as a barista in a small, independent coffee house. Since the tube incident, Jamie has been commuting to work on the riverboat. Open air, a beautiful view of the city and a great way to relax on your way to work. Also, passengers aren’t crammed in like sardines, sweating in the heat, stuck in a tunnel, panicking and pulling the emergency cord. Anyway, the book begins in that weird week begin Christmas and New Year when two detectives meet Jamie off the boat before work. They’re concerned about the whereabouts of one of Jamie’s fellow passengers, Kit. However, Kit isn’t simply a fellow passenger. Clare and Jamie have been together a while and felt in need of some excitement, so invited one of Clare’s new employees and her partner over for drinks. Melia and Kit are young, attractive and have that hint of danger. They drink, but also dabble in a bit of coke. Melia is stunningly beautiful and on one evening in Clare and Jamie’s kitchen, she corners Jamie and says she finds him attractive. Jamie is twice her age at 50 years old and very flattered, but has a lot to loose. Not only his long standing relationship with Clare, but everything that comes with it - her family, her financial support, and the large Georgian house with communal garden that they share, but Clare owns. Will he be tempted to risk everything?

The book’s structure brings us back and forth, to the Christmas week and Kit’s disappearance, then back into the past few months and what’s really been going on in plain sight and in secret. Then, just when I was starting to get a handle on what’s really happened, Candlish pulled the rug right out from under me! Then I had to reevaluate everything I’d read before.

I love books that surprise me. Especially when I’ve become very invested in the story and have started running up my own theories on what’s going on. I became very interested in Jamie’s partner Clare. To some degree she has led a very privileged lifestyle both in London and back in her family’s home in Edinburgh. However, she has been a great partner for James and has supported him through the tube incident, his period not earning and even further into the novel as the questioning about Kit’s disappearance becomes more focused on James. Her strength and dignity shows when she still firmly supports him, despite their relationship being on shaky ground at times. Meanwhile, Melia is a master manipulator and actress - I will never trust anyone who’s performed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This is not just a book about being deceived though. This book is about self-deception. About thinking you can party like twenty year olds when you’re middle-aged. About ignoring the reality of your situation, your finances, the roof over your head. About ignoring the reality of how attractive and how desirable you are. It was great to read a book where the women have all the power, whether it’s because they’re young, smart and beautiful, or whether they’re classy, wealthy and dignified. Even the seemingly quiet, unassuming, riverboat passenger Gretchen, has some tasty secrets of her own. This is a very taut, well-written thriller, that is difficult to put down and even harder to second guess.

Ohhh this is a good one!!! A rollercoaster ride of a read....what’s going to happen?! Who did what?!! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

If you are looking for a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and keeps you guessing, look no further. Add to it a setting that is so well described it adds to the atmosphere, and you have a very good book.

Having only read one of Louise Candlish's books, "Our House", and thoroughly enjoyed it, i was looking forward to this and I wasn't disappointed. It tells the story of two couples, 40-something narrator Jamie and his partner Clare, and millennials Kit and Melia. Unlikely friends, their lives become intertwined as Clare and Melia work together, and Jamie and Kit commute together on the river bus. Kit disappears and Jamie is questioned over his disappearance.

Candlish's writing skill is impressive - the characters are flawed, not entirely likeable but well developed; the setting is fabulously described and adds a menacing element;, with the setting of the Thames used to great effect; her ability to keep you guessing all the way through is remarkable. Candlish has certainly become one to watch for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.