Reviewed by Kate (Blogging with Dragons) on
On her daily commute to London, Rachel sees the same couple, whom she affectionately dubs Jess and Jason, and pictures what their fairy tale life is like from her seat on the train. But her belief in their perfect life comes crashing down when she witnesses "Jess" kissing another man. Outraged by this reminder of her own ex-husband's affair, Rachel is determined to set things right by telling Jason about his wife's cheating. But things are turned upside down when "Jess," really Megan Hippwell, is reported missing. Filled with a new sense of purpose, Rachel insinuates herself into the investigation and Jason--Scott Hippwell's--life.
It should have been painful to watch a woman with so little dignity, and who is even deemed an unreliable witness by the police, stumble around drunk as she pitifully scrambles to find a sense of importance in any way she can. At times, I mentally groaned as Rachel made yet another huge blunder, calling her ex-husband yet again, showing up at his house, pretending she still had a job, making false claims about a friendship with Megan, lying to her flatmate about joining AA--was there anything this woman could do right? A more fitting title for the novel could even have been "Trainwreck Girl." However, through all of these mistakes and glimpses of who Rachel used to be, I couldn't help but to root for her to somehow pull it together.
However that seems less likely than ever, when Megan's body is found and Scott becomes suspect #1, and Rachel finds herself irretrievably involved in an increasingly dangerous situation. As she struggles to piece together the drunken events of the night Megan disappeared, she realizes that she may have witnessed more than what she had seen from her view on the train. Like Rachel, I could't imagine who was responsible for Megan's murder, even with the benefit of glimpses into the adulterous woman's point of view. "Girl on the Train" kept me guessing almost to the very end and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced mystery with complex and human characters.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 2 June, 2015: Finished reading
- 2 June, 2015: Reviewed