Kit and Jamie take the Thames ferry to work each day but then one day Kit doesn’t turn up. We are taken back to when they first met and how their relationships with one another and their partners develop.
I really got involved with the characters and enjoyed the twists and turns in the storyline.

The Other Passenger is an absolutely beautifully crafted thriller which is a delight to read, so many unexpected twists and turns, which make this a perfect book.
Jamie and Clare are a middle aged couple who are delighted to recapture a bit of their youth when they meet new friends, younger couple Kit and Melia.
When Kit does not turn up to join Jamie on their usual commute into town by riverboat after the Christmas break, Jamie is concerned. His concern is exacerbated when the police arrive to question Jamie. Kit has been reported missing. It appears that Jamie was the last person to see him.
What has happened to Jamie? How did Claire and Jamie get so involved with the young couple? Is Jamie a reliable narrator? Does he know more than he is telling the police?
An absolute must read! Thrilling from the first page to the very last.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having read and enjoyed Candlish's previous novels, I'm disappointed to say that her latest one really didn't do it for me.

'The Other Passenger' tells the story of 48 year old Jamie, who is accused of killing his new, young friend, Kit, after Kit's wife, Meliá, reports him missing.

There were some clever twists in the story, but the entire pace was far too slow for me. I had to force myself to keep reading it, and it only seemed to get interesting in the last 20% of the book. I don't mind slow burners if I have a connection with the characters, but all of the characters were flat and unlikable.

As Candlish is a popular author, it will be ordered for my library service, but I'm afraid to say that, although encouraging my customers to try it, I will personally be recommending her previous works more.

How often do you gasp out loud when reading a book? If you are looking for a thriller to read this summer I can’t recommend ‘The Other Passenger’ more. It’s one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. This is the first book I've read by Louise Candlish but it won't be the last. The first 50% of the book is told through a single meeting and a series of flashbacks. Your heart is breaking for Jamie being accused of something he clearly doesn't have an idea about but that sympathy is limited when you hear about the afraid with the victims wife. From reading the first half of the book you'd never guess who the story was going to unfold and that is what makes it so great.

This covers the investigation of Kit's disappearance between Christmas and New Year, interspersed with snippets of the past year detailing Kit and Jamie's relationship from first meeting to the fall out prior to his disappearance.

Such a clever, well-thought out plot with lie upon lie and twist after twist. By the end my head was literally spinning – and what an ending. This is one of those books that’s so hard to talk about without giving anything away but I was blindsided by big reveal. I guess in hindsight I perhaps shouldn’t have been because throughout the entire book you never knew who or what to believe, who the innocent party is, feeling sorry for someone one minute and then hating them next.

Again without wanting to spoil it, the ending was hugely satisfying in that to a certain extent everybody got played and no one was really ‘innocent’. However, this was also a slight problem for me and my reason for a four rather than five star rating in that none of the characters were very likeable. Whilst well constructed, they were all completely ruthless, self-obsessed, untrustworthy characters and narrators. I also like to see justice, particularly for a character I don’t like, and was the ending was unexpected and largely satisfying it wasn’t necessarily fair.

The beautifully described South London setting was a real bonus – although I must say as someone who hates commuting Jamie’s fear of the tube and the description of events that caused it were frighteningly realistic.

I will definitely be seeking out some of Louise Candlish’s other books in future.

Louise Candlish has a brilliant talent of putting everyday mundane subjects on paper and making them come alive. The subject of the rich and poor carries no desire for me, however she made me read this book with excitement and a longing to the whodunnit.
A clever writer with strong characters, you love and hate.

Louise Candlish is book after book becoming the master of twisted stories set in suburbia. I was hooked from the start and left following the author and getting happilly lost in the meandering of the story. I also loved the fact that the main character is a middle aged man and not a 30 something couple or woman as is so usual in domestic thrillers. And the ending was pure genius. Can't wait for the next one.

An absorbing tale of intrigue set between Greenwich and Blackfriars, the London landscapes of this books are perfectly and seductively observed, from an artisan cafe in the Cut to the squares of Greenwich. One of the most interesting themes in this year's crop of thrillers seems to be age disparity - not so much Boomers vs. the rest of the world, but a slightly burnt-out Gen X vs. twentysomething 'snowflakes' or 'elder millennials' in their thirties.

The two young characters who disrupt the domestic balance of the middle-aged pair at the heart of the book are not so much Generation Y but Generation Me, unable to see why the lives they were promised on a plate haven't worked out and waiting for a pay-off - literally. Beyond that, there's not much more to say apart from, if you're a middle-aged man with no redeeming features or capital and a young woman's putting the moves on you, perhaps stop and think about why before you find yourself on trial?

Another thriller from Louise Candlish that's definitely a cut above the rest, though her 'Our House' and 'The Swimming Pool' are also worthwhile reads that brilliantly explore the charms and dangers of certain types of property and the lure of an aspirational lifestyle.

‘The Other Passenger’ is the latest book by Louise Candlish.

It all happens so quickly. One day you’re living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn’t turned up for the boat and his wife Melia has reported him missing.When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends – ask Melia, she’ll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your lives?

Having won best crime and thriller book at the British Book Awards for her previous book called ‘Our House’ you’re always guaranteed a gripping and gasping book journey with Louise Candlish.

Like Louise’s previous books, the book starts right at the key moment that something significant has happened and then travels back to the time leading up to it and after.

After giving up a high powered job in marketing due to the claustrophobic commute, Jamie decides to work in a less pressurised job in a cafe that involves a compute on a river boat. It’s whilst on this river boat that he makes friends with Kit, a young man with a lust for partying and his stunning girlfriend Melia who works with Jamie’s wife Clare.

The four of them become firm friends despite the age difference until one day Kit disappears and the finger of blame is pointed at Jamie.

The story is primarily seen through the perspective of Jamie, which makes for interesting reading. He’s a character that envies Kit and Melia, a young couple who enjoy partying and socialising whilst Jamie’s partner prefers a slower pace of life. As the story progresses we see Jamie go from being a simple man to a man fuelled by lust and power and it’s fascinating to see this transition.

With short and snappy chapters, complex characters with a sharp and plausible plot line that really grabs the readers attention, this book was a great thriller to get absorbed in. An exciting masterpiece of suspense and drama, Louise has delivered another rollercoaster of a story with ‘The Other Passenger’ with an ending that certainly rivals that last line from ‘Our House’.

You can pre-order ‘The Other Passenger’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 25th June 2020.

The Other Passenger has lots of twists and turns but for me the plot was too unbelievable. Nevertheless, it was an easy read and I'm sure Louise Candlish's fans will not be disappointed. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review it.

Jamie has known Melia and Kit for almost a year, but how much does he really know? They had met after Clare Jamie’s long term partner had invited them round for dinner, Melia worked with Clare. A friendship had ensued, and Kit and Jamie travelled to work by river bus everyday and often stopped off for a drink on their way home from work in the evening.

But when Kit isn’t on the riverboat on the 27th December 2019, the day they were returning to their jobs after the Christmas break, it turned out Melia had reported Kit missing, he hadn’t been seen since the 23rd and the last person to have been known to have seen him was Jamie. As Jamie departs the riverboat on the 27th the police are waiting to talk to him. But Jamie assures them when he left Kit on the 23rd he was fine.

The whole story is told from Jamie’s point of view, but how reliable is he as a narrator? It seems there is more to Jamie and Melia’s friendship than meets the eye, but what would a 29 year old woman see in a 48 year old man?

I enjoyed the story, if at times it seemed to lag a little bit, but I stuck with it wanting to know where it was going to lead, and I will say I never guessed the twist that was coming. My only real problem was the characters, Kit and Melia seemed to expect everything for nothing, jealous of the house that Clare and Jamie had, although it was really Clare’s house, which she never stopped pointing out, her parents had purchased it for her when property had been cheaper, and it was now worth a couple of million pounds. A property Kit and Melia could only ever dream of owning, especially with their frivolous ways with money. Then Clare constantly pushing Jamie to look for a better job, he had had a breakdown on a tube home from work one night, and now worked in a coffee shop to Clare he wasn’t working to his full potential. I wish I could have liked the characters but I just didn’t. For me personally I would have liked a slightly faster pace at times, but overall a good psychological thriller.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #Simon&Schuster for an eARC in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

Telling the story of two couples, Clare & Jamie, and Melia & Kit.

The gist of the story is how they meet and interact and looking at how they deal with the generational differences. When Jamie and Melia start an affair the tension increases and then when Kit goes missing, things are revealed so you realise there are lots of hidden truths.. This is another excellent work by this author. Louise Candlish has a very enjoyable and unique writing style. There is a certain rhythm to her writing that is quite special. I am fairly sure I could read some of her work without knowing the author and be able to guess it was her.

Her twists are incredible!
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. Can't wait to see what she brings out next!

The Other Passenger sees Louise Candlish in familiar territory with a twist-laden domestic noir replete with odious charters and a suburban South London setting. Whilst Our House focused on the housing market, this novel revolves around money and specifically the resentments that arise from the inequalities in wealth. Having read several novels by this author I always find her style incredibly readable and she has a knack for exploring the frustrations, petty disagreements and niggles that can expose the darker side of human relationships. The Other Passenger is no different and although the novel held my interest I was never particularly invested in the story or riveted by it.

The novel is narrated in the first person by forty-eight-year-old, Jamie Buckby, whose claustrophobia has forced him to jettison his white collar career and take a job in a café as a stopgap. Disembarking from the river boat in the days after Christmas he is accosted by two detectives with the news that his friend and fellow river boat commuter, Kit Roper, has disappeared. Told that he was the last person to have seen Kit following a pre-Christmas drink that ended in fisticuffs the police want answers from Jamie, most of which fail to establish his innocence given their prior conversation with Kit’s twenty-nine-year-old wife, Melia.

The story then reels back to the start of the friendship between the Ropers, Jamie and Clare, his property agent partner of ten years, which begins when Melia joins Clare’s firm and the Ropers are invited to dinner at the four storey Georgian townhouse that Clare’s parents own. The foursome spark off each other and a heady friendship ensues despite Kit’s niggling obsession with money and his obvious resentment that his hosts have everything he would give his right arm for. Melia isn’t much better either but the evening finishes positively with Jamie and Kit both buying an annual season ticket to commute to work together via the river boat.

Cutting back and forth between the police investigation into Kit’s disappearance and the course of the couples friendship over the preceding year with several twists along the way I felt the novel could have been tighter and less repetitive. I found the pace sluggish in parts and I became a little irritated that every discussion, no matter how it began, seemed to come round to the subject of money and the hardships of the younger generation as regards student debts and getting on the property ladder. Furthermore the narrative is littered with tired generation gap (‘dad’) jokes which add nothing to the picture given the reader is continually made aware of the two couples age divide.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the twists into the close and felt the ending was rather prosaic and disappointingly unoriginal. The scenario will be familiar to fans of the genre and as such I found it eminently guessable. All in all I found the novel a relatively pedestrian thriller with a cliched denouement. Engaging but uninspired.

The Other Passenger is a cracking read with an ending to keep you gripped throughout the entire book.Jamie commutes to work by the river bus and meets Kit who lives nearby,they become friends and soon they are socialising with their partners Clare who is with Jamie and Melia.All is well in the beginning even though Kit has a huge chip on his shoulder about Jamie and Clare's lifestyle and where they live.Without giving to much away about the story Kit disappears just before Christmas,has he just gone a bender or is there other forces at play ? This is with out a doubt a very good thriller from Louise Candlish and i will certainly look out for her future books.An excellent 5 star read with i finished in 2 days.

Description 🔖

Jamie gets the river boat into the city for work every morning and regularly meets with his friend Kit for the commute. Until one day in December Kit doesn’t board and Jamie is met at his destination by police. They let him know that Kit has been reported missing and they are conducting an investigation into his disappearance.

The police have been informed that Jamie and Kit were seen one evening arguing on the river boat home and let Jamie know that he is the last reported person to have seen Kit. That of course makes his suspect number one.

Jamie maintains his innocence, but the other passenger thinks he has committed murder.

General Thoughts 🤔

One night it took me to devour this book once I picked it back up after my little reading hiatus. What a book to break my book fast with. I would describe this book as a game of two halves; the first being the tension build, the second being the dramatic explosion.

I had no idea what was coming. I think I expected one thing with a small twist that I couldn’t quite get my head around, but then I was hit with the reveal and I couldn’t pick my jaw up. As the story unravelled and the characters started to unravel along with it, the book just got better and better.

Characters 👫👭👬

I have thought a lot about how I feel about some of the characters and I’m still a little bit torn. I don’t want to go into too much details as I don’t want to give the game away to anyone before reading. So I’ll keep it brief.

I pity Jamie. He made some really stupid decisions that risked popping the bubble of his privileged London life…BUT…is he a murderer? Could he really do it?

Kit is the kind of person that really rattles my cage. Mad at the world because his life isn’t where he wants it to be but pushing the blame onto everyone but himself.

Writing Style ✍🏽

I can’t even begin to comprehend how an author can come up with a storyline like this. With twists on top of twists and every small detail and conversation catered for I can’t imagine how much attention that must require.

I loved how tiny things that seemed inconsequential at the time of reading ending up being a significant part of the story. I loved the tension build at the start, the reveal and then the aftermath. I loved everything.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Such a moreish read. This has to be on your to reading list for this summer! A story of relationships, friendships, fall outs, make ups and lots and lots of deceit. Bloody fantastic.

I love this author. I’m always gripped and find these books impossible to put down. This has been no different, I will be highly recommending this book.

This book was one of my May Spring Bank Holiday reads in our sunny back garden during Lockdown - thank you to Simon and Schuster UK for a digital proof copy via NetGalley (my thoughts are my own and not influenced by the receipt of the free proof copy).

This is the first Louise Candlish novel I have read. Our House is sat in a large pile of books waiting to be read, after seeing many favourable reviews (it has now been moved up the pile).

The story kept me enthralled throughout - where is Kit? Who wanted him out of the way and why? Who is the other passenger? The suspense built nicely, the flaws in the main characters start to be divulged and there are lots of flaws and lots of suspects. I enjoyed the location of the book too - a virtual visit to London during Lockdown.

As I would hate to give away any spoilers, I'm going to stop here and say that this is my favourite thriller of 2020. Full of suspense and twists.

I really enjoyed this book. 40 something Jamie and his partner Clare become friends with Melia, a much younger colleague of Clare's, and her partner Kit. Jamie and Kit start to use the river bus to commute to work together. Kit is a volatile character with a drug and alcohol problem, and he and Melia are up to their eyeballs in debt. When Kit goes missing and another passenger on the boat has said that he and Jamie had been fighting, Jamie finds himself being pulled in by the police. The story is narrated by Jamie, and is the most amazing double crossing plot. I was intrigued right to the end! Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

"But you know what they say are the two most heartbreaking words in the English language? What If. Or, if they don't, they really should."

I have been utterly captivated and addicted to this book, devouring it in less than 24 hours. It is absolutely incredible and The Other Passenger is now my favourite of Louise's books (and all of her others I have read were amazing)!

I really liked how this story was told from Jamie's perspective in the first person and his experiences following that fateful morning on 27th December 2019 when he gets off the river bus at his usual stop, only to find the police are waiting to speak to him. His friend and fellow commuter Kit has been reported missing by his partner Melia, and Jamie was seen arguing with Kit on the boat home just a few nights before. Unfortunately, this is the last time Kit was seen by anyone and the finger of blame is pointing right at Jamie...

It was really effective having the flashback chapters interspersed throughout Jamie’s narrative, showing how he and his girlfriend Clare first came to know Kit and his partner Melia in January 2019 and how their lives became so intertwined over the following months. I could really feel their differing personality traits and emotions, especially those of Jamie, who I found to be such a brilliant character!

I absolutely adored the setting of this book and really felt like I was there in London as I was reading. London is a city I love visiting for day trips and for concerts (I've even been to The Water Rats pub which was mentioned in passing to see bands I love) so I immediately felt a connection to Jamie and Kit's world. I can't wait for a time when I can visit this wonderful city again and think I will definitely have to go on a river bus (something I have never done before) to experience Jamie and Kit's journeys together.

The fast paced nature of this story was fantastic and for me the twists and turns made it all the more compelling. The ideas I had as it progressed couldn’t have been further from the truth! The scenes that transpired three quarters of the way through left me gobsmacked and my heart was racing! I did not see them coming at all. Then an even bigger event happened shortly after which left me completely and utterly speechless! This was such a phenomenally clever and gripping turn of events and the epilogue too; I almost couldn’t believe what I was reading! I still cannot stop smiling now at just how fantastic the whole plot was! I will be recommending this book to everyone!

This is a very well written book, and I did enjoy it. I did unfortunately find it a touch predictable, however this didn't take away from my enjoyment and I still read it in one day