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.

Rating: 2.2/5

I was attracted by the premise of this novel and there are certainly elements that lived up to my hopes. However, ultimately, there are just too many aspects that either simply don't work, or at least, don't consistently work well enough.

The early stages of the book are quite engaging and intriguing, as the central character, Rachel, meets and develops a somewhat unusual relationship with a fellow commuter. Although there is an element of having to suspend disbelief, it doesn't require too much of a stretch and I enjoyed the "Brief Encounter" vibe that I was picking up. Less convincing in these earlier sections is the portrayal of the relationship between Rachel and her wealthy husband, Anthony. Pretty much from the word "go", I got the sense that it didn't ring true nor feel authentic. Instead, I felt that these may well just be required to serve the narrative and subsequent plot development. This is a trait that crops up throughout the novel. There are too many occasions when protagonists behave unconvincingly out of character, purely to allow the author to move the storyline in a particular direction. The effect is that it seems clumsy - and the same can be said of a number of overly convenient plot developments that take some swallowing. Sadly, in spite of its encouraging start, "The Commuter" becomes increasingly melodramatic and disappointing. In the final analysis, it is an okay read, but it had the potential to be considerably better.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

A great concept that leads into a compelling and thrilling read. Really enjoyed it, plenty of twists and a satisfying reveal at the end.

This book got off to a really good start and I really liked the description of this but it fell flat for me. I read two of the authors books before and enjoyed them but this one unfortunately wasn't for me. I rounded up to 3 stars. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

Rachel wakes up from a coma to find that her husband is dead. Someone has murdered him and it's looking like she was involved. But she has lost her memory, so will she ever find out the truth?

What i liked about this book: The premise was good. It's always interesting when the main character doesn't seem to know what's going on and the first part of the book held my attention.

What I wasn't so sure about: Most of the characters are very unpleasant especially Rachel's stepdaughter, Caroline who is the epitome of a spoilt brat. I also felt that there were too many twists and turns, so many that I was quite giddy by the end. I also found that I didn't care who did it.

It appears to be the case in lots of books that main characters are really unlikeable. In truth very few people are as black and white as that. The fact is most people are much more complicated than being just bad, or just good for that matter.

Overall, I thought the novel got off to a good start but this didn't follow through to the end. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher,. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3,

4.5 stars, this book is fast paced with lots going on but I felt it remained easy enough to follow. Rachel wakes up from an induced coma following a drunken car crash to find her husband has been murdered and her memory of the last 6 weeks is non existent. Flashes of a man (not her husband) keep coming back in wisps but she can’t quite grasp the edges of these memories. She is isolated at this point, suspected by the police, despised by her contemptuous step daughter, betrayed by her narcissistic mother until she meets Dominic a therapist. As Rachel slowly builds herself back up we quickly start to discover not everyone is who they appear to be and events have not unfolded as we assume they have. Kept me gripped all the way through l, I could see this becoming a film easily. Highly recommend

This was a gripping psychological thriller which had me riveted and waiting to see what happened next. It is written over different time lines and keeps the reader in suspense and you never know what’s going to happen next as lots of twists ans turns.