**3.5-stars rounded up**

Jamie and Kit are part of a group of London commuters known as the Water Rats. They have the luxury of making their daily commute via riverboat on the Thames, as opposed to more traditional, oftentimes more frustrating modes of transportation.

They drink coffee together in the morning and more spirited drinks after work. It's not a bad way to start, or end the day. On the first Monday back to work after the Christmas holiday, however, Jamie is approached by two police officers as he disembarks from the boat. Apparently, Kit hasn't been seen since the Water Rats Christmas drinks celebration a few days prior.

They had all been a bit sauced when they finally boarded a late boat to get home. The boat was practically empty, but it seems another passenger reported that Jamie was the last person seen with Kit. Jamie is under suspicion. He can hardly believe it. He and Kit did have a bit of a row, but then he went straight home. Back to his longtime partner, Claire, who can certainly attest to his whereabouts.

As the hours, then days, tick by with no sign of Kit, things begin to get progressively worse for Jamie. It's all a bit of a downward spiral.

Through a past perspective, the evolution of Jamie and Kit's friendship is brought to light, including their signficant others, Claire and Melia. Kit and Melia have a contentious relationship, with Jamie and Claire witnessing evident unhappiness on more than one occasion.

Could Kit have run off on his own, or has something much more sinister happened to him? Jamie needs to find out. His very freedom may depend on it.

It's no secret that I am a fan of Louise Candlish's brand of Domestic Thriller. There's something about the way she weaves a tale that I am absolutely addicted to reading. It's always over the top, full of unlikable characters, as well as plenty of twists and turns to keep things interesting.

While The Other Passenger did start out a little slow for me, around the midpoint, it really heats up. After that the gas pedal is all the way to the floor until the conclusion. This is one of those stories where the last little bit left a devilish smile on my face. I always enjoy that type of wickedly satisfying ending.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I am so on board for anything Candlish writes, so I am definitely looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next!!

This is the second book I've read from this author and it didn't disappoint. This psychological thriller will take you on a ride if you just hang in there because it's well worth it. Jamie who travels on the commuter riverboat is accused of killing his friend and fellow commuter Kit so hold on to see what happens in this twisty thriller. I really enjoyed this book and I'm sure I'll be reading more from this author. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Kit and Jamie commute to work together nearly every day. That is, until Kit disappears and Jamie finds himself a person of interest. It’s a simple premise. But there’s so much more to this story which is told from Jamie’s perspective. It moves back and forth from the present to earlier in the year when middle-aged Jamie and his partner, Clare, meet the younger Kit and his girlfriend, Melia.

The Other Passenger is a slow burn that reveals the relationships between these four people. There are many influences that shape the characters as well as the story – money, prestige, ego, and anxiety are among them. All of these things play into the tangle of relationships and behaviors that eventually bring the story to its climax. The twists and unexpected revelations held my interest right up to the end.

I am a fan of Louise Candlish and her latest book didn’t disappoint. It is well-written and clever, with well-developed characters. The Other Passenger is definitely a page-turner and I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

The Other Passenger is a very, very twisty commuter travel horror story that moves quickly and with purpose to a satisfying conclusion. This was the first thriller I have read by Candlish and I’ll be looking for her other novels. The Other Passenger is a novel filled with unlikeable and unsympathetic characters, so if you are a reader who must like the characters, this will not be your cup of tea.
Highly recommended for all, but especially those readers who can never get enough twisty mysteries.
#theotherpassenger
#NetGalley

A dark suspense thriller with equally dark themes, this book was engrossing for the most part. I must admit that at times the pace seemed too slow and I just wanted it to move along. There were multiple time lines to the story, but it all takes place during the holiday period between Christmas and New Year’s. The narrator is unreliable, so not everything Jamie Buckby says can be believed. After an incident in the tunnel, Jamie leaves his white collar job and becomes a barista at a local coffee shop. He changes his commute to a riverboat and enjoys the freedom to move around and the fresh air that it offers. He also makes new friends on his commute, including Kit. Jamie is married to a wealthy heiress named Clare and the two live in a mansion. Kit is married to Melia and Melia thinks she should be living in a mansion, so there is some class envy involved. When Jamie begins an affair with Melia, the tale of lust and betrayal really took off. When Kit disappears after a visible argument with Jamie, Jamie becomes a suspect of foul play. The author writes a plot that is multi-layered with many twists and subtle clues about the ending. Nevertheless, the ending was a total surprise to me. I was dismayed at the lack of morality among the characters, with bed hopping and overspending rampant. I enjoyed the story but I did not like the characters. They were a bit overdone and not totally believable. The plot itself was thought-provoking and intense at times. The intrigue was there and very well presented.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley, I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

Psychological thrillers - not my favorite genre - so much manipulation by everyone, the characters, the authors - so difficult to review without giving anything away and ruining it for the next reader. So, Jamie Buckby - I had so many questions for him. His logic and inner thoughts are on every page and still I has so many questions and did I mention that I am not a fan of psychological thrillers?! Why then did I keep running back? I needed to see these unscrupulous people align. I needed to hear the mental gyrations which would become weapons of destruction. Suggest a theory, misdirection works some of the times. Seasons changed - it was an uneasy time. Confidences recirculated as common knowledge. What evil thought or deed was going to be perpetrated next? I wanted to find the door and the light and the solution. I believed there had to be a way out. So hard to explain without giving it all up.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy

The Other Passenger is a delicious page turner. The pace is uneven, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the obvious train wreck that was coming. There are plenty of twists to keep one reading.

Ms. Candlish’s writing is clever, and her character development is good. She artfully places red herrings and misinformation. The story is told solely by Jamie Buckby’s POV; I got a first-hand look at his downward spiral. The Other Passenger is told in dual timelines, toggling between present day and the start of the calendar year where Jamie and his longtime partner, Clare, meet the much younger Kit and Melia.

Each of the couple’s relationship as well as their relationship to the other couple is interesting to track. Money and social class are strong themes within the story, and both greatly influence all the characters attitude and behavior as well as coloring others’ perception of them. Dealing with the aftermath of his panic disorder, Jamie is highly susceptible to drama created in his own mind. Somewhat related, Jamie is in need of a major ego boost/acceptance that he does not feel he is getting from Clare, and consequently, he falls easily into Kit and Melia’s web.

The tangle of the web grows and grows as the story reaches its zenith. I caught the gist of how the story would culminate, but didn’t anticipate the details of the journey. The Other Passenger is well worth the read.

I included this title as part what's new in suspense, mystery, and thrillers in the month of July. I promoted on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram. https://www.bethfishreads.com/2021/07/22-mysteries-thrillers-suspense-novels.html

In THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish our narrator, Jamie, finds himself being framed for his friend Kit’s murder. Kit is your standard millennial who thinks life should be easy and money should be given not earned. Hard work is not in his vocabulary. Jamie, in the other hand, is almost 50 and recently had to quit his corporate job and take up a position at a cafe due to his crippling anxiety over public transportation. They have an argument one night after drinks with friends, and the next day Kit is reported as missing by his wife.

None of the characters are particularly likable. I think this is why I found this book hard to get into. Jamie is whiny and selfish. He’s basically just leaching off his partner who is successful in business and comes from family money. Kit and his wife, Melia, want to work as little possible and are mad they are aren’t millionaires by the time they’re thirty.

This is definitely a slow burn. The first half is Jamie being interviewed by detectives about his relationship with Kit and what happened that night Kit went missing. Slowly the truth comes out and you start to see what really happened that night. The last half is interesting and moves at a lot faster pace and was much more interesting. I did not feel bad for what happened to any of these characters though. I feel they are got what they deserved.

I will say that there were a few twists in this book that I didn’t see coming. Overall, not bad and it was an interesting plot.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for the gifted digital copy.

A psychological twisted tale of suspense. My first Louise Candlish novel and it will not be my last. Disturbing twisty and a quick page turner. Highly recommend!

"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."

***
If you're a fan of domestic dramas and quiet psychological thrillers this is the book for you!
There's lots of relationship drama and back forth guessing keeping you wondering exactly what is happening and who's a part of it.
At the center of the story is Jamie; he's a middle aged bloke who works in a cafe after suffering a panic attack commuting to his previous job. Luckily, Clare, Jamie's partner is independently wealthy and their fancy house is all paid for. He loves his cafe job and his new ferry commute has him making friends with folks he probably wouldn't have chatted with otherwise like Kit, a dude in his 20's and his gorgeous girlfriend Melia. Clare likes that they've made friends with a younger couple to keep them hip and everything appears to be all hunky-dory until Kit disappears and another passenger on the ferry claims Jamie was seen arguing with him and is therefore suspicious.

I'm a sucker for reading the nitty gritty about people's lives so I really enjoyed this and loved the ferry aspect! I only got a little confused at the end and had to go back and reread a few parts, but I was engaged the whole chunk of it!

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the chance to read The other passenger by Louise Candlish. The premise of this story sounded really good, but every time I picked it up I just had trouble getting into the story...was it the story, the characters? Not really, I just was not a fan of the rhythm of the story if that makes any sense. It just seemed to plod along, and while it was a good story, I just didn't really care for any of the characters, nor what happened next...a true indication for me of a great thriller. I started reading this more than a month ago and then put it down, and only realized I hadn't finished it. I think if you like British suspense you may like it.

This book is a good read although most of it pretty predictable I still found it worth the read. It was a little slow in the middle but definitely keeps you reading in the last part of the book. The characters and the plot are interesting focusing around the want to be young and the want for money but I do think there could have been a lot more done with this type of plot. I would say this book is an easy read and a fast read.

Oh what a twisty, turny plot Louise Candlish has managed!

At first glance Jamie Buckby is a familiar character....midlife breakdown leading to a downward career shift. Supported by his wealthy girlfriend, Jamie is feeling a bit emasculated when he's introduced to his wife Claire's beautiful colleague Melia and her hard partying partner Kit. Despite age and lifestyle differences, they soon all become fast friends.

For someone who is fast approaching 50, you would think Jamie would not be as influenced by Kit as he is, but he realizes that if not for the grace of Claire who is now supporting him, he would be no different than Jamie. And when Melia shows an interest in Jamie, you can almost hear the "dun, dun, dun" music in the background.

By the end, none of the characters are likeable, but due to the ropes that Candlish puts them through, you will find yourself cheering the outcome perhaps a little more than you should. Because greed and lust will get you every time!

Cheers to Louise Candlish on a well plotted novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance reader's copy.

After a spectacular burnout that caused him to lose his high-paying job, Jamie Buckby has found work as a coffee shop barista, a job that pays much less than his previous career.

But money really isn’t an issue for him. He lives with his girlfriend, a wealthy, successful businesswoman, in her wonderful historic home in a tony London neighborhood. The two have had a long and compatible relationship, but in keeping with the saying there’s no fool like an old fool, Jamie risks it all when he falls for the beautiful, manipulative and much younger Melia.

This being a mystery by bestselling British novelist Louise Candlish, there are plenty of other complications as well in "The Other Passenger." We watch the story unfold through the eyes of Jamie, who commutes to work by riverboat with his neighbor Kit, who is married to Melia.

Kit and Melia are living well beyond their means, wracking up credit card debts and obviously envious of Jamie’s lifestyle. Then, one day, Kit doesn’t turn up at the boat, and when Jamie arrives at his stop, the police are there waiting for him. Kit’s been reported missing, and another passenger saw Jamie arguing with him on the boat just before he disappeared.

“The book is dedicated to anyone who has ever 'compared up,' and that’s it in a nutshell,” said Candlish, who lives in London with her husband and daughter. “Historians know just how much we all have relative to our forebears — Kit and Melia are fabulously well off compared with their counterparts 50 or 100 years ago, but they have no sense of perspective. They believe that if you want something hard enough you are entitled to have it. That way lies disaster, that’s the takeaway. Better to earn it.”

But it’s way too time consuming and difficult for Melia to wait and work hard to achieve her dreams. It’s much better to convince Jamie with promises of money and a life together to help her get rid of her husband. Jamie is foolish enough to believe that’s what Melia really wants. With the police closing in, he soon realizes that Melia has outwitted him and has much different plans in mind.

“There were several inspirations, and that’s how my books are usually conceived — I’ll find a way to marry multiple obsessions,” Candlish said. “I wanted to do a commuter mystery, I wanted to create a 'Double Indemnity' for the 2020s, I was eager to explore the generational warfare between Gen X and millennials. Finally, I felt the need to write a love letter to London life around the River Thames, to capture its dangerous allure.”

Thank you to the publishers at Atria Books and Netgalley for this e-ARC of The Other Passenger.

The Other Passenger is one heck of a slow burn! I almost DNFed this, but was so glad I didn’t, because those twists were incredible! Absolutely wild!

The Other Passenger features a slew of unlikable characters. Jamie, from which we get our POV, is an unreliable narrator because he’s holding stuff back from you, as if he knows you’re there listening, watching, waiting. When his best friend, Kit, doesn’t show up for their near daily boat trip to work, he begins to worry. Told in a nonlinear timeline, Jamie finds himself interrogated by two detectives where he tells them everything that’s been going on since he met Kit and his wife, Melia. The only person who is semi-likable, is Clare, Jamie’s other half. So what happened to Kit? What is Jamie hiding? What is truth and what is fiction?

This book really takes you on a wild ride with twists you just don’t see coming. At the end, almost everyone gets their comeuppance, but not nearly enough of it. I really enjoyed this slow burn, and can’t wait to read more of Louise’s books! The Other Passenger is available now!

And now I have another book to be thinking on for years to come. This was a hit for me! I think what's so great about her books, and especially this one, is that she does such a great job throwing you right into the story. I felt like I was right on the riverboat myself! The twist in the end caught me off guard, and I actually enjoyed learning about what happened months after that! Another awesome story.

Jamie and Clare are in their late 40s, just old enough to be really beginning to feel old, and somewhat alienated from the next generation. Kit and Melia, on the other hand, are young--good looking, elastic skinned, with glossy dark hair and wide bright eyes. Each couple finds something to envy in the other. Kit and Melia live far beyond their means, garnering debts galore, yet they view themselves as desperately poor and misused. Jamie and Clare's gorgeous old mansion and Clare's position at a high end real estate company put them comfortably in the category of the despised rich. Meanwhile Jamie, working as a barista after suffering a nervous breakdown on crowded public transport a year earlier, realizes that he's actually nearly as broke as Kit and Melia.

It's just after Christmas, and Kit is missing. He and Jamie take the water-bus to downtown London for work each day, a classy and expensive alternative to crowded undergrounds. They went for drinks just before Christmas, and Jamie was apparently the last person to see him before he disappeared. Jamie's not worried. Security cameras show him going straight home. As the days pass and Kit does not turn up, however, Clare becomes more and more suspicious as to what's really going on.

The Other Passenge is a really interesting book. It's definitely a book of suspense, with twists and turns galore, but the characters also deal with issues like generational differences, rich v poor, contentment, and more. It's true that things are harder for young people than they were when the now middle-aged were young themselves; at the same time, they weren't that easy and Gen Xers generally managed without expensive leather handbags and craft bourbon. At one point, I found myself thinking of that old fairy tale <em>The Fisherman and His Wife</em>, in which the fisherman's wife can never be happy with what she has, until she's at last left with nothing. It's a cautionary tale. The first half or so is slow moving, setting things up, and then things start winding alarmingly towards a startling denouement. The ending is not neatly tied off with a bow, which I found satisfying. A very enjoyable read.

4.5 stars

Ooh, it was a good read! I had read another book by this author a few years ago and enjoyed it, but she really managed to up her game for The Other Passenger. Well done, Louise Candlish, well done. This book has earned a spot on my favorite reads list for 2021.

Jamie works in a coffee shop and due to an incident on the tube, he chooses to commute by riverboat. Kit is his neighbor and he also takes the boat to work. Jamie and his partner, Clare, socialize often with Kit and his girlfriend, Melia. One day Kit goes missing. So what happened to Kit? The story alternates between the present day with the investigation into the disappearance and the past in which you get to see some key moments that may provide some insight into the current situation.

The author did a good job keeping things off balance so I was never 100% confident in knowing the direction of where things were headed. There are some curveballs along the way that keep things interesting. I personally felt satisfied with the conclusion but as with any book there is certainly room for differing opinions. I had a fun time reading this book from start to finish and I do think it is worth checking out if you enjoy domestic thrillers.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

This is the first book I’ve read by Louise Candlish and I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to pick up one of her books. I will definitely be going through her backlist soon!

This is such a twisted, slow-burning type of read that I love. It is full of unlikeable characters and an unreliable narrator and the fact that a lot of it is set on a commuter ferry just makes for a unique setting. I loved that every time I thought I knew where things were headed, a new twist would pop up, throwing everything off balance.

There is such a strong sense of place in this book. Because of an incident on the tube, Jamie now commutes by a commuter ferry to the coffee shop he works at. His neighbor Kit also takes the same boat to work. Because Jamie and Kit end up becoming friends, they begin to socialize as couples with their partners. But one day Kit goes missing and no one knows what happened…or do they?

I loved how the story alternates between the present day investigation into Kit’s disappearance and the past where you see how their friendship unfolded. Of course now I want to reread the book to see if I missed any clues…but isn’t that always the case? As I already stated, this isn’t a fast-paced book, but I felt it moved along at just the right pace, with the last part moving the fastest, and the twists kept me hooked. I really enjoyed this one and definitely recommend it!