What a tangled web we weave. A story of how relationships of many kinds affect our lives, some are barely recognised or understood, others can have devastating consequences. Rachel attends an interview and has an immediate attraction to her would be boss. Long, story short they marry. Twelve years down the line with their age difference beginning to show and the tedious bitterness of her stepdaughter dragging her down, Rachel is flattered by the attentions of a complete stranger on her commute to work. It begins an unstoppable chain of events that threaten the stabilty and lives of all concerned. A gripping book that has the reader wondering just who is trustworthy and with manipulative characters aplenty it delivers a dark, fast paced story. A definite page turner and thoroughly recommended.

This gripped me at the start. Told from the perspective of Rachel Gordon who is married to the significantly older but wealthy philanthropist Antony Gordon. Their marriage is somewhat strained in part due to her rather spoilt step-daughter Caroline and Antony's health issues. Despite their wealth Rachel continues to work and it is
on her way to work one day that the tube breaks down. During its stop she meets and becomes infatuated with the mysterious Sean. They embark on a brief but passionate relationship. Before it develops Rachel crashes her car. Upon awaking from her induced coma she finds she has no memory and is greeted with the news that her husband has been murdered.

Caroline is adamant that Rachel is behind the murder while Rachel has no idea what happened. More twists and turns are expertly unfolded as the handsome psychiatrist Dominic enters her life. Can he release her memories and prove her innocence. Will her estranged mother be her downfall when she offers a character assignation to the detective leading the case? And where is the elusive Sean?

It is at this point that Curtis introduces different perspectives and timelines to the plot. While I was still invested in the events I came to dislike the characters Caroline and Dominic intensely. They lacked credibility and depth and the sub plots were not needed. By the final chapters Rachel unfortunately joined them as weak and limp wristed. I so wanted her to be a villainous stepmother strutting her stuff at the end. But sadly this was not to be.

Overall I enjoyed aspects of this and burned through each page. If only the ending lived up to the rest.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

Very well written psychological thriller that has me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next
Unlikeable characters made it even better
A strong story and will look up the authors previous books

This one gets slightly confusing somewhere along the lines. The narrative alternative timelines and POVs. There are people you want to shake all throughout. The plot is a little generic and predictable.
However, despite all that, I still found myself really enjoying this book!
It’s really well written actually which is unusual for the amount of psychological thrillers published today with basic and childlike writing.
Despite the sensational storyline and reasonings, it was easy to be floated along with the story rather than dragged and fast paced enough that you didn’t become bored and disillusioned somewhere in the middle.
If the storyline was a little more original I would have given more stars but overall I still do recommend this as an easy and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

I have read all of Emma Curtis books and they are all very good. The Commuter is not my favourite and it did read similar to her previous book ‘Invite Me In’. That said though it is still a great read and I would recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This had me hooked from the first page. A great thriller. I finished this in a day as it was so difficult to put down. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

It’s the stuff of nightmares. Rachel wakes from a coma to learn her husband has been murdered and she’s a likely suspect. But though Rachel cannot recall the last few weeks, she has a memory of a fellow commuter, someone who’s in her mind for a reason but she does not know why. This mystery man has disappeared, leaving her further confused and the police even more suspicious. However, she’s now received her late husband’s wealth, and a stepdaughter who abhors her, meaning life is even more difficult without her husband than with him. Will she be able to piece what scraps she has together to find the truth? A great, pacy read where you’re slightly caught off guard in a very pleasant way.

I have read this ARC with a view to providing a review
All opinions and thoughts are my own

A new author to me and the description sounded so intriguing
A fabulous read and do love a twisty turny thriller

Loved it

The Commuter Emma Curtis
5 stars

Another amazing story from this author
.
I have read two of this author's previous books so was really pleased to request this one and it certainly did not disappoint!

Rachel is 38 and has been married to her husband Anthony, who is 68, for 12 happy years. The only downside is her stepdaughter, Caroline, who is an aspiring actress who spends most of her life 'resting' and living off her father in the marital home. Rachel has tried to explain to Anthony over the years that Caroline needs to stand on her own two feet but, in his eyes, she can do no wrong. When Rachel tries to make Anthony understand one more time he hits her which has never happened before and makes her start to re evaluate her marriage and her life.

On her daily commute to work Rachel meets an attractive stranger on the tube and is immediately attracted to him. All she knows is that he is called Sean but reeling from her husband's behaviour Sean becomes the highlight of her day.

The book begins when Rachel goes to a friends party, gets very drunk but on receiving a phone call from her husband saying 'What have you done?' jumps into her car and wakes up in a coma in the hospital remembering almost nothing and then discovering Anthony has been murdered.

Caroline is determined to blame Rachel and as Rachel cannot remember anything makes a good case against her. Rachel goes to a psychologist to try and sort her life out but is he the man he seems? The plot has many twists and turns and we hear all different sides of the story. I enjoyed this book and wanted to know what had really happened. The characters are always very well written and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story.


Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net Galley

Rachel had been in a coma following a car accident in which she had been drinking. On coming round she is told her much older and wealthy husband has died and that she is suspected of killing him. She had no memory of the previous few weeks but the police are sceptical.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks as her memory gradually returns. She remembers something about meeting a man on her train to work but not initially anything about him. She recalls her fractured relationship with her step daughter. She’s helped initially by her psychiatrist but he is not really what he seems.

I found this to be a book of two halves, the first half for me was far more engaging than the second which was a little far fetched. None the less I did zoom through it and found it entertaining so could forgive the fact I found my belief a little stretched

Love the way this book starts, your mind is all over the place and cleverly makes you feel for the protagonist as she also doesn’t know what’s happening.

It hooks you right in and I honestly couldn’t put it down. Easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable.

I was hooked by the synopsis of this book, it promised a lot but did it deliver?
Honestly? 50/50.
The story is there, it’s a solid book that starts off as a really intriguing thriller. The first part of the book was well paced, with good twists delivered at the right times to provide the most impact.
My biggest thing when reading this, was getting over the unlikeable characters. Don’t get me wrong, I love to hate characters in books but when they’re written with meaning and depth. Usually there’s a reason characters are the way they are, and it’s thoroughly explored, this doesn’t happen here.
Because the story is written well and the scene is set from the beginning, you can lose yourself in it for the first 50% maybe 60%…….until it all just seems to drop off. Finishing the book after this was harder than when I started it.
Overall, I’d say this is an ok book to add to this genre, but there’s nothing that would make me pick this up again in the future.
If you want a quick read thriller, then absolutely pick this one up. Emma Curtis is a good author, with a proven record of excellent writing. Would recommend.

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.

This started off as a really gripping thriller that had me guessing at every turn. Unfortunately, the ending was quite disappointing and didn't really live up to the promise of the earlier build up!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

What a rollercoaster of a read! A fantastically uneasy thriller with a protagonist suffering from memory issues. Crammed full of twists and turns and deeply unpredictable, this will keep you turning the pages. A very satisfying read.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Oh. My. Goodness. I saw one of my favourite authors post on Instagram about loving this book so I immediately went to request it and was not disappointed!

I love a thriller that keeps me thinking and guessing, whilst not being able to even come up with an idea about how it’s going to turn out. Every single thing that happened, I was nowhere near expecting. And I loved it! As well as the brilliantly unpredictable story, there was the stunning writing. During the scene-setting part of the story, Emma created such an incredible feeling of unease, and slow-building tension. And then the truths start to be revealed… and it was just ace!

The story itself centres around Rachel – although we do start to hear snippets from the points of view of more of the characters towards the end. It starts with Rachel having a car crash and then waking up from a coma, unable to remember anything from the last few weeks. We don’t know why she was in such a panic to get home – but she soon learns that her husband, Anthony, was killed that night.

We then go back in time a few weeks, and find out how precarious Rachel and Anthony’s marriage had become, and how Rachel met a mystery man on her commute to work. But she cannot remember whether she had an affair or not, and has no way of contacting him.

I thought the characterisation of Rachel was brilliant – she felt like a real person, with lots of layers and a sad and difficult history. The fact that she couldn’t remember parts of the recent past made it feel like I was living the story with her, willing things to be pieced together.

Quite an exhausting read (I couldn’t stop reading it from about 60% through!) but thoroughly enjoyable!

I enjoyed the premise and plot of this book and found that the storyline was propulsive amd readable. I did find that the characterisation was slightly clumsy and the writing felt generic and basic in places. This didn't feel especially distinct in the context of thrillers

This was a really good book with lots of twists that I didn’t see coming. I did think she was a bit over keen on every man she met but her behaviour was explained at the end. Very enjoyable.

This was a complex, twisty tale of a younger woman married to a very rich older man with a very spoilt daughter who resents the stepmother. The wife crashes her car drunk one night and wakes up to find her husband is dead and she is under suspicion and she’s lost her memory of the weeks before the crash. Her first words on waking and being told her husband is dead are, ‘I killed him’.

The book did hook me in and did keep me intrigued enough to keep me going for quite a while but ultimately it felt like a long, long book. The book is told from various viewpoints which cover all the same details but from a different point of view, which I found quite tedious. The main character, Rachel, is somewhat naive and often gullible, especially towards the end and I found that frustrating, She has the broken relationship with her mother. (highly popular in books written by women) and is emotionally damaged by that. The daughter Caroline, is just a horrible person, spoilt by her indulgent father, worshipped by her mother. She’s a pretty unsuccessful actress but manages to fool Rachel constantly so actually can’t be that bad an actor. In fact, none of the characters are particularly likeable.
I got confused with the guy on the train and the psychiatrist and thought they were one and the same person. Maybe that’s what I was supposed to think?

It’s basically a good story but loses it’s appeal towards the end, sadly not for me.
My thanks as always go to the author, the publishers and to NetGalley for an advanced e.copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atlantic Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel is a 39 year old who is married to Anthony, who is 25 years her senior and quite rich. His troubled adult daughter Caroline lives with them. Rachel is mostly happy with Anthony but when she meets a handsome stranger on a the District Line, she is drawn to him, and they start to meet more and more, but only on the train because Rachel doesn't want to betray Anthony. But then Rachel wakes up from a coma in the hospital after a car accident and finds out Anthony was killed at their home the same night and Rachel is the number one suspect in the murder.

This was a good read and I was turning the pages pretty quickly. I definitely wanted to know what had really happened. The ending and explanation for what did happen seemed a bit convoluted to me, but I guess that you have to expect that in some psychological thrillers, so overall I liked it and I have liked the other books I have read from this author, so I look forward to her next.