This was a great thriller with an unbelievable ending. It focuses on Bridget, who sees a girl being kidnapped from a train platform on her way home from work- but no one else on the train sees it. Suffering from post-natail depression with her own 8-month-old daughter, everyone thinks she dreamed it- making her an un reliable witness and main character. With the police not on her side and the time running out for Bridget to find the missing girl no one else knows of, how much of a toll will it take on her?

I wasn't initially gripped by the book, the premise was good but the start was slow and although I know we wanted her to be the unreliable narrator and not know what to believe, at times I was frustrated at her actions so much that it wasn't enjoyable. But, as the book went on, the story developed and the events played out, I was nothing far from shocked, I had to re read at times to make sure I was reading it correctly and naively didn't see it coming. There were no loose ends, just dark and worrying outcomes, but it was an amazing thriller!

From the get go you're thrown straight into a very compelling narrative, about 100 pages in I felt like I knew where the book was headed, however this didn't dampen my my need to read on. The book is written with a continuous steady pace and I absolutely flew through the pages with nothing about the plot as black and white as I expected.

What I loved about this is the character balance, although the book has many, it's very centered around the main protagonists with just the right amount of input from the others to carry the story.

I really connected to Bridget, at an already difficult time in her life she's feeling pulled from all sides not know how to feel...
Tom the loving husband trying to convince her of his of love.. but having an affair?
An over bearing mother who would do anything not to have her daughter stray too far from home.
Two Detectives who don't seem to be doing their job.. but so many kids go missing and the leads at a dead end what can they do?

Brilliant phycological thriller.. with a rather disturbing twist.

Thank you @Avonbooks for my advanced readers copy through @NetGalley.

Bridget is the mother of an 8 month old baby girl who has gone back to work to support her stay-at-home husband who is doing the child-care. She has suffered/is suffering and being treated for post-natal depression. She works long hours and has a substantial London commute by train. One night she sees a child being snatched by two men at a station as the fast train from London hurtles past. She rings the police and everyone on the train is questioned but no-one else saw anything and distressingly for Bridget, no-one reports a child missing. All the indicators point to her having dozed and dreamt what she thought she saw. But Bridget can’t let it go and begins investigating herself.

I didn’t take to Bridget’s character and although I deeply sympathise with post-natal depression, I struggle to empathise because I was lucky enough never to suffer from it. I felt for her husband and struggled to believe the lengths she went to investigating this kidnapping - which resulted in her spending less time with her little girl and her husband. I felt the police were portrayed in a fair way, hard to know what else they could, in reality, do about a reported crime, unseen by the rest of the commuters on the train, no reports of a missing child, no reports of anything untoward from any of the stations, and the woman who reports the crime is shown on the CCTV as dozing for most of the journey and she’s on medication for depression, which is known to have the side-effect of causing bad, vivid dreams?

I had a ‘light-bulb’ moment half way through the book when I thought ‘aha, I get it!’ but I didn’t anticipate all the twists at the end, which, in my opinion, were slightly far fetched, especially the ‘flower-bed’ part.

When I started his book, my initial thoughts were that the author had just finished a writing course and this was her first book because half of her prose was very detailed and flowery with in depth descriptions (which I remember being encouraged to write on my writing course) and the other half sort, staccato sentences. I hoped it wouldn’t continue like this throughout the book and to be fair that lessened but having said that it was all written in the first person and I’m not a lover of that either.

However, I have to say, it did keep me interested all the way through and at no time did I consider giving it up and for that I give credit and stars. I normally enjoy psychological thrillers but this one.........sorry, not so much, just wasn’t for me.

My thanks go to the author, to NetGalley and to the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest, unedited review.

A gripping, psychological thriller. This book had me on the edge of my seat and kept me guessing til the end.

A missing child. A single witness with post-natal depression. And lots of lies and deception. 🔎⚒🚆

New mom Bridget is riding the train home from work when she sees a young girl kidnapped from a train platform. But when no one is reported missing and Bridget is the only witness, people start to question her story and sanity. No one believes her. Not even her husband. Bridget can't let it go though and starts investigating on her own, even when it starts to threaten to unravel her life.

Phew. This book was a doozy. It's a slow-burn 🔥 stressful 😳 mind bending 🤯 psychological suspense thriller where you're questioning the narrator's version of events throughout the whole story. Thrillers don't normally stress me out, but this one did! It moved a bit too slow for me and the twist at the end was a bit far-fetched, but overall a solid read. ⭐⭐⭐💫

Thanks @netgalley and @avon_books for the ARC! This hits shelves April 15.

The Girl On The Platform - Bryony Pearce

Bridget is a London commuter, mother to seven month old Grace and wife to Tom. Exhausted with the stresses and strains travelling home one night on the fast moving late train she sees a schoolgirl being snatched off an isolated station platform.

The writing is excellent and characterisation is very good indeed. Bridget's depressed and weary working Mum is expertly portrayed, with a perfect balance of anxiety, self-doubt and work / life pressures.

For the first 70% I found it compulsive, up there with Blood Orange and Lesley Kara's best books on the top shelf for this kind of novel.

I thought it went a bit weird in the last quarter, but it all gets wrapped up nicely, leaving the reader with plenty to think about. I did have a few doubts and niggles here and there, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the quality of the main characters and the writing.

Not quite a must-read but very good and definitely recommended.


Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books

I,loved this rollercoaster of a book, it was so compelling. I felt so sorry for the main character and at times I got frustrated with the police as they weren’t helping her in any way. I did have my suspicions who was behind all the kidnapping’s but, wow, I wasn’t prepared for the final few chapters. They were so good that I just wanted to keeping reading so I could find out the ending. What a fabulous book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

A new author to me. I enjoyed this book. It’s got a good pace and kept my attention throughout.
When Bridget catches the train home from London she witnesses a child taken from the platform. She is the only witness, as no child is reported missing no one believes her. She is determined to try and find the child. She has her own problems battling post natal depression and insomnia, as well as sleep deprivation with a young baby and the guilt of being the main wage earner instead of being the primary carer.
Bridge starts looking into similar cases of missing children using statistical analysis which is her forte to look for patterns.
Her behaviour causes problems at home. There are some very manipulative characters in her life, and some very dubious behaviour which adds some good twists and turns.
I’d figured out the main part of what was going on early on, although it didn’t go totally in the direction that I thought it was.
At the end I was still left wanting more explanation to one of the threads.

On the way home from work, travelling by train, Bridget witnesses a kidnapping right in the platform of a train station. But the only problem was, she was the only one in the train who had witnessed the abduction scene and all the other passengers deny seeing the abduction. Was Bridget hallucinating? Maybe, as she was taking antidepressants. But Bridget believed that she didn't hallucinate the scene and soon gets herself involved in finding more about the kidnapping, which involves ruining her relationship with her husband Tom and her own mother questions if Bridget was a good mother to her child Grace...

This was surprisingly a good fast paced thriller! An unusual plot with an unreliable narrator that makes the story more interesting. The writing was good and I was hooked into the story till the end! I felt rooting to the main character, Bridget even though she was an unreliable character. The ending to me was intense, gripping and unexpected that I was hooked into the ending! It was good!

Overall, this was a good fast paced thriller with twists and turns that will keep you up all night--worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Avon for granting me this ARC! The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Girl on the Platform is a dark intense read with many twists and turns.

Bridget witnesses what she thinks is kidnapping as she is heading home after a long day on the train.

No one believes her.

Bridge is obsessed about finding out what happened to the girl.

Tom is a stay at home husband and realizes that Bridget is suffering from post partum depression and anxiety. He can do no right.

I thought I knew where this book was going but was I wrong.

The ending is perfect .

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for a page turning read.

This starts off so well; a tired young mother, on her way home from a long day at work, sees a young girl being snatched from a platform as her train whizzes past. However, despite involving the police immediately, no-one else saw the incident and the young mother involved is on medication....

What follows is a tense read as we follow the young family through the horror. I enjoyed the premise of the book and it's certainly got a twist (just quite a predictable one) and after a slow start it does move at pace and is an accomplished debut thriller. I didn't enjoy it as much as most readers, but, can definitely recommend as a 3* Good Read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

New mother Bridget is on her way to work on the train. She is exhausted and overworked and she is also suffering from Post Natal depression. When she sees a girl in a school uniform on a platform of one of the stations being abducted. She reports it, but one has reported their child missing and because of Bridget’s Mental health and the tablets she on is. They think that Bridget is hallucinating. Even her partner Tom does not believe her, which causes friction in their relationship.
But Bridget can’t leave it alone and gets obsessed with finding her. So, she tries to do her own investigation on her disappearance, and she finds out things that haunt her and she also realises that she is being followed by someone in a white van.
I have heard good things about this book, so I had to read it myself to see what it is all about. This is an excellent psychological thriller. It had a great tense storyline that kept you engaged through out and so many twists. The characters were well developed especially Bridget’s evil mother. I also guessed two thirds into the book what the outcome would be. But it didn’t spoil it. I was still determined to finish this book and I must say I really enjoyed it. Five stars from me.

The Girl on the Platform is a psychological thriller that contains many twists and turns. Bridget is a new mother who has recently returned to work. Struggling with postnatal depression and sleep deprivation she sees something on her commute home and immediately informs the police. Unfortunately, nobody else on the train witnessed a child been taken by two men and Bridget begins to question her own sanity when people stop believing she really saw anything.
This book really highlights the struggles of new parents, and the challenges they face. You can feel the desperation of Bridget’s attempts to find out what really happened on the station platform and the difficult relationship she has with her formidable mother is another stressful challenge for her.
I did find the ending a little far fetched for what had mainly been a believable novel, which is a real shame.

I absolutely loved this story. Bridget is travelling home on the train, tired and exhausted, when she witnesses a little girl being kidnapped. This begins her journey to discover what happened to the little girl. One thing that struck me about this novel is how real it felt. Bridget is a new mother with an eight month old daughter. She's still up doing night feeds and breastfeeding as Grace has a dairy intolerance. The way the author described her tiredness was very real and add to that postnatal depression and we get an amazing well written character that you bond with right from the very start.

No one else sees the little girl being kidnapped and even the police don't believe Bridget. No one reports the girl missing either. Bridget knows what she saw though.

This story is gripping. The paragraphs told from the little girl's POV are so well done. The book is an emotional read and even, if like me, you guess the outcome of the story, I can guarantee you will never see how it comes about. All the characters in this book were superbly written and it is a story that I will remember for quite a while to come. Highly recommend this for those who like to be kept on the edge of their seat and reading way into the early hours of the morning.

A great read, it had me gripped from the beginning. You think you have the twists sussed, and then you are thrown in a completely different direction!
Very clever

It's a gripping psychological thriller with Bridget as the main character. During her train ride home,  Bridget saw a girl kidnapped on the platform as her train passed through. Unfortunately she's the only one saw the incident, no other leads helping her report. She's being obsessed about the incident, while her mum, her husband, and police think that she was dreaming about the incident. The fact that she has mental health problem didn't help her to convince them about her story. I am able to predict what's going on while I reach 25% of the story, however the writing was really well done.

This was one of the most suspenseful books I have ever had the pleasure to read. I struggled to breathe, I shouted out loud at times. So good. A really unique story. I could never in a million years guessed the ending. Brilliant xx

Story’s main character Bridget Carlson is a new mom of 7 month old Grace. Bridget has gone back to work as she and hubby Tom decided it was financially better if she went back to work and he would do child care. She is on the train on her way home from work, it is late and she is exhausted. She is resting her head on the window trying to sleep when they pass a small station and see a little girl perhaps six years old, sitting on her luggage waiting for the train. The next thing Bridget sees two men grab her and practically throw her into a white van. Bridget panics and calls the authorities; they board the train and question everyone. But no one else saw what happened.
Bridget arrives home very late after the questioning and is still very upset. Tom tries to comfort her and tells her surely the girl’s mom will report her missing additional the station has CCTV.

However, No one is reported missing! Now police and everyone else including Bridget’s husband, her mother etc. doesn’t believe her, fears are that her exhaustion had her seeing things.
~ I believed her but soon saw that Bridget’s world was totally unraveling in a downward spin.

I read enough psychological thrillers so I know three things:
 Be suspicious of everyone
 Expect twists and twist and turns
 And there will probably be a secret or two.

Yep all three points ran through my mind.
 Why is Bridget’s Mom so controlling?
 Why is Bridget under such heavy meds?
 The Fluoxetine causes tiredness, confusion, abnormal dreams and nightmares.

Hmmm? Might Bridget’s mother have ‘Munchausen Syndrome’?
This was a quick read ~ story kept me turning pages! ⭐⭐⭐⭐+ Stars

A must read for any psychological thriller fan ~ you won’t be disappointed!

Want to thank NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this early release granted to me for an honest professional review. Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 15, 2021

Exhausted new mother Bridget collapses into her seat on her train home at the end of a long work day. She leans against the window, dozing on and off, until a sight shocks her awake. Two man are dragging a little girl into a white van. She has just witnessed a kidnapping. As the train speeds on, she asks other train riders if they saw the little girl. They didn’t. She reports it to the police but no child has been reported missing. Where is the little girl? Why is Bridget the only one who cares?

Bridget becomes obsessed with the case and starts her own investigation. Her determination begins to affect her marriage to Tom, a stay at home father. He’s worried because she’s recovering from postpartum depression and dealing with her overbearing mother. Although Tom tries to be supportive, he begins to think that his wife is having a mental breakdown fueled by rage, paranoia and confusion. Her mother agrees. Will Bridget find the missing girl before she loses her own sanity?

The Girl on the Platform, an intense psychological thriller, is narrated by Bridget and it disturbing to see how she struggles to process information and express herself as she experiences nightmares and confusion. Also part of the story are the worried thoughts of a sad little girl who has been kidnapped. This is a book you won’t be able to put down. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books UK and Bryony Pearce for this ARC>

Bridget is a tired, new mom of an 8 month old who works long, endless hours in order to support her family. On her way home late one evening, she witnesses a young girl being snatched from a train platform. No one else sees this and due to her postpartum depression and mental health issues, everyone discredits her and chalks it up as a nightmare she must have experienced as she was desperately trying to stay awake. However, Bridget couldn't stop thinking about the incident. Why is no one helping this child? The kidnapping is all consuming and it begins to impact her home and work life.

The story is frantic and I wanted to read more, but realized at 60% that I new the twist. It is a good thriller with a good pace and I could relate with Bridget's frustration and exhaustion.