I'm torn in my thoughts of The Other Passenger.

I really enjoyed the book and read it quite quickly. Once I started, I needed to know what was going to happen. Some things I figured out along the way and others took me by surprise. As I was reading I found myself getting a little bored at times because I felt the middle of the story dragged on a tad bit too long. There were a few parts that I feel could have been left out and not taken away from the text.

I liked the time line narrative and thought I really had a good feel for the characters (some of whom I liked more than others, though I'm sure that was the point!)

I will definitely be on the lookout for more books from Louise Candlish in the future! Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Louise Candlish will keep readers guessing in this newest thriller. Candlish can build the tension of the characters with amazing skill.

Jamie Buckby is a middle-aged man who takes a boat into work every day. When he and his partner befriend Kit and Melia, they all hit it off right away. Jamie and Kit even decide to take the same boat together into work each day.

As the two couples become closer, their secrets are revealed. There is a reason Jamie takes a boat into work. He gets claustrophobia on the subway and once had a breakdown on his way home.

As for Kit and Melia, they are having some serious financial problems. It also seems as if they resent the lifestyle Jamie and Claire have, even though they are quite a bit older.

When Melia propositions Jamie one night, his world takes a giant tumble into a dangerous direction. As the story progresses, one wonders, what did Jamie know and what did he do? Is he guilty or innocent?

I loved the last half of the story with the reveals and twists—especially the twist that comes at the very end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

(3.5 stars for me)

A man becomes a person of interest when his friend goes missing. He tries to balance his secrets with his own suspicions of what happened but gets the sense that a bigger game is at play. Author Louise Candlish takes just a touch too long to ramp up the mystery but keeps it rolling once it gets moving in her latest book The Other Passenger.

Jamie Buckby has made an amazing discovery: he can take the ferry to work and bypass the complicated tube system that runs under London. At one time, taking the tube was just another part of his day as he traveled to his white-collar job in security. Then he had a panic attack during his commute one day, and everything changed.

Now Jamie works at a coffee shop in Central London, which is quite the distance from his posh house in the suburbs. Well, not exactly his house; the deed says his girlfriend, Clare, owns it. But he and Clare have been together for more than a decade in a committed relationship. It’s not “Clare’s house” or “the place he lives”; it’s home.

It’s also the object of envy of Kit and Melia Roper. Gorgeous twenty-something Melia gets hired at Clare’s real estate company and Kit works in insurance, a job he complains about all the time. Kit thinks he’s too vibrant and interesting for the insurance world. Still, it’s a paycheck, and no one can turn that down.

Kit and Jamie start commuting on the ferry together and over time they become friends, or so Jamie thinks. Kit tends to be moody. Sometimes he’s chatty, other times not. Jamie hasn’t quite got a bead on him yet, other than the fact that Kit fulfills the stereotype of millennials with his attitude that he shouldn’t have to work so hard for the good things in life.

Melia, on the other hand, is a refreshing change for Jamie. So refreshing, in fact, that when they have an affair, he doesn’t fight it. Yes, he has Clare and a nice home to live in, but the house doesn’t even belong to him and Clare is constantly nagging him to improve his career prospects. Melia just wants him, nothing more.

Then Kit goes missing. The police don’t have enough information to arrest Jamie or even to file a formal report yet. Yet they keep hinting that another passenger on the ferry saw something to put Jamie on their radar.

Clare doesn’t know about Jamie and Melia, of course, and Jamie would prefer to keep it that way. But the entire situation with Kit sounds fishy. Then his problems get much bigger than trying to hide his mistress from his long-time girlfriend.

Author Louise Candlish takes her time building the story, which might leave some readers a little antsy. With the entire book told in first person, readers will spend a lot of time inside Jamie’s head with his own opinions and observations. The point-of-view choice slows down the narrative, and it keeps readers at arm’s length for the first half.

Once Candlish reveals one major plot point, however, the rest start lining up like bowling pins. Candlish knocks them out at a steady, even pace, and readers will have a lot of fun watching Jamie try to squirm out of the mess he’s created. Even with some events out of his control, he’s definitely responsible for his own actions. How those actions connect to the larger story at hand comprises the second half of the book, and Candlish uses a practiced hand to strike when readers least expect.

Jamie’s mid-forty-something self rings true to readers who fall into that age range. It’s easy to sympathize with his desire for more while also his hesitation to work for it. The greatest irony comes in how often Jamie blames Kit for self-aggrandizement when he does exactly the same, only with a few more gray hairs.

Readers who don’t mind being a little patient for the main part of the story to start moving forward will enjoy this one.

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish is a mysterious novel following two couples as they develop a friendship. Clare, the older woman in this group, comes from inherited wealth and is the long term partner to Jamie, the older man in this group who works at a coffee shop after suffering a highly public panic attack. Clare introduces Melia, a coworker, and Melia’s partner Kit to Jamie and they become intertwined. What starts as a friendship soon develops into something much darker, especially after Kit goes missing and the last person to see Kit is Jamie…

This is the first novel I’ve read by Louise Candlish and it did not disappoint! The pace of this book starts off slow, building suspense as various secrets are revealed. However by the last third of the novel the pace picks up pace quickly completely engrossing the reader.

This book includes so many red herrings that lead the reader to develop so many theories on what happened and why is to blame. At times things were a bit over the top but if you can suspend your disbelief it is an entertaining ride.

Many of the main characters were completely unlikable but that added to the fun and tension between the characters. Tension is built between the characters through themes of wealth, privilege, generational differences, marriage beliefs, social and economic class, gender, and much more. The only somewhat likable character was Clare though I do wish she would have been fleshed out more because she oscillated to being very involved then absent throughout the book. However I absolutely enjoyed the novel. The ending although unsatisfying in some ways was so justified in others that it perfectly fit the nature of this novel.


Overall I recommend this to fans of suspenseful novels with some thriller aspects that enjoy unlikable characters with fascinating motives.

Many thanks to the publisher Atria Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The Other Passenger is finally my very first book by Louise Candlish! I have been meaning to get to a book by her for quite some time now, and I am happy I finally did. This was a slow burn suspense novel that I wouldn't necessarily call a thriller, but it has a nice mystery element and it did pick up the pace when we get towards the end. I really enjoyed the musical reference to Sublime through Lana Del Ray and the author's descriptions of the ferry. This book focuses heavily on commuting to work, but that doesn't mean it is boring. The first thing that caught my eye was definitely the cover and synopsis, and I think going into this one blind is a good idea even though the synopsis creates intrigue instead of saying much about the actual plot. I have seen part of this plot before, but that didn't stop the book from surprising me as well!

I did take a listen to the audiobook and while I liked it, I think it is better to read this one. The narrator Steven Mackintosh did a good job, but I had that issue where you can occasionally hear him swallowing along with other mouth noises, which I just do not like in my audiobooks. The narration itself was fantastic, but that was enough to drive me up the wall so reading with the eyes is the way to go with this one if these things bother you. I really liked that the whole story (for the most part) is told from the viewpoint of Jamie, and it did help to build tension as well. I saw other readers call this a psychological suspense novel and that is something I definitely agree with. Fans of that genre should enjoy The Other Passenger, and ooooo did I love how the end made me feel! There is a great diabolical edge to this novel, and it makes me really look forward to reading more from Candlish!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Jamie Buckby is just a couple years shy of 50, and he’s had to start a new career as a barista. His claustrophobia turned into a full-on panic attack on the train, complete with angry commuters, viral videos of him recorded on phones, and a Twitter hashtag of hatred, all aimed at him and his ill-timed panic. So his well paid marketing job with the long commute turned into a job at a coffeeshop closer to home. But London being London, there is still a commute.

Jamie’s partner Clare had invited a couple over for dinner, co-worker Melia and her boyfriend Kit. Kit was a commuter too, and when he heard about Jamie’s aversion to the Tube and the trains, he suggested the new ferry service that was on offer. They both buy a pass, and an instant friendship is born.

At first, life on the river is amazing. There is a bar on the boat, so on the way home, Jamie and Kit would share a drink or two, and sometimes that would run over into the pub on the way home from the ferry. Even though there’s almost 20 years between them, they find an easy friendship. They both like to drink, neither one has kids, and even though Kit hates his job in insurance and Jamie is enjoying working at the coffeeshop, they can still talk about their jobs. It’s an easy routine they’ve fallen into. Until the day that Kit doesn’t show up for the morning ferry.

And the police are waiting for Jamie as he gets off at his stop.

Kit has gone missing, and Jamie was the last one seen with him. Another passenger on the ferry saw their argument and pointed him out to the police. And now he’s a suspect in Kit’s murder. They have a witness who puts them together. And while they don’t have a body (but they’re thinking he’s in the Thames), they do have a motive for Jamie—his feelings for Melia, Kit’s partner.

As Jamie tells the story of his relationships with Kit and with Melia to the police, he wonders how much they believe. He wonders how much they can prove. And while he knows for certain that he didn’t to anything to Kit that night, he does know more than what he’s saying. But when the whole truth comes out about what’s happened, will Jamie still get to live his happy life, or will he lose it all?

The Other Passenger is the latest thriller by master storyteller Louise Candlish, and it is one amazing ride. As the story unfolds, and the deeper layers reveal themselves, you realize that almost everything you thought you knew about these characters was wrong. It all changes, and then it changes again. The bread crumbs are all there, but it takes a long time to put the puzzle together, and the reveals along the way are like fireworks, adding sudden light and sound that illuminates something you hadn’t noticed before.

I was enthralled by The Other Passenger. This story drew me in and wouldn’t let go. I thought the story unfolding so much on the ferry, using that daily commute to peek into these lives, was creative and fascinating. I loved every twist and turn, every secret and lie, every reveal and surprise. This one is so much fun, and fans of exceptional domestic thrillers should add this one to their bedside immediately. Just don’t expect to get too much sleep.

Egalleys for The Other Passenger were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

The 2nd half was definitely better than the first but it still only gets 3 stars from me. None of the excitement happens until you get through the much slower first half and the twists and turns begin. And then, just when you think you know how it will end, it changes on you again. So yes, half of the book was my kind of book! I also like how it was written. It starts out on the day a person goes missing during the Christmas holidays in 2019 but then it goes back to when the story really began, a year earlier in January 2019 when this group of people all meet. Luckily the chapter titles tell you when events are taking place – current time or the past, leading up to the disappearance. So, if you like a mystery with twists and turns, I’d say give this one a try. Just don’t read it right after a 5 star read like I did…..that might be why I didn’t enjoy the beginning as much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster UK for an advanced copy of this book and introducing me to this author. I’ll have to pick up another of her books.

A slow burn of a book with enough twists to keep the pages turning and the reader guessing. Middle aged Jamie and Clare have been together for a decade when twenty somethings Kit and Melia enter their lives. At first it’s all fun and games as they are reminded of their youth, but all is not what it seems. Kit and Melia are deep in debt and jealous of the life and home Jamie and Clare share. Feelings build and Jamie and Melia become close until Kit doesn’t come home late one night before Christmas and Jamie was the last one to see him. Jamie knows he’s innocent, but where is Kit? Suddenly everything changes and everyone is not going to come out unscathed! Another great book by Candlish!

I did get a kick out of this line in the book ...
“2020 has a sci-fi ring to it, I feel, like it might be the year of alien landings or the one where gamma rays get us.” Pretty accurate I’d say 😜

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish has all the ingredients that a superior thriller must contain. And it does in spades. Jamie and Clare are a typical English couple. They take the daily commute via riverboat up the Thames. And so do Kit and Melia. That is until one day when Jamie and Clare climb aboard Kit does not. The rumors abound as the police dig into this floating locked room mystery made even more urgent because people saw kit having a loud argument with his friend James the night before his disappearance. The police confirm that James had reasons to dislike Kit and therein lies the rub. James is just a regular dude and a friend of the deceased. How can a friend be suspected of killing another friend? And how especially on a large boat with a lot of passengers.
The Other Passenger is creepy and twisty. A who done it that is more intriguing because friends do not kill friends, do they?

Oh, how I love Louise Candlish! I was so thrilled to pick up an ARC of The Other Passenger. As always, she did not disappoint!

We first meet Jamie Buckby, who is living the dream. He and his partner Clare live in a beautiful house funded by Clare's parents. The couple befriends a younger couple, Kit and Melia -- and Jamie and Kit take the ferry into work together every day. But one day, Kit goes missing, and Jamie is reported as the last person to see Kit alive. Not only was Jamie the last person to see Kit alive, but Jamie and Kit were reported to have been arguing when last seen together.

This book was such a thrill up until the very LAST page. Told from the point of view of Jamie -- who was entertainingly honest to a fault, it was the perfect combination of suspense, drama and showing how far people will go to hide the skeletons in their closet. Drop everything you're doing and pick up this book!

Happy pub day to The Other Passenger, which centers on ferry commute buddies Jamie and Kit. Thank you to Atria Books for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

On a whim, Jamie and Kit buy yearlong ferry passes, and their commuting relationship soon turns into a true friendship between them and their wives. They often go for post-work drinks, and one night they get into an argument. Jamie shrugs it off as no big deal, but then Kit's wife reports him missing. Jamie's the prime subject - can he prove his innocence? And what really happened to Kit?

This was my first book by Louise Candlish, and it did not disappoint. Kit is the worst, but I really wanted to know what happened to him! I love books with couples' friendships - there are always so many secrets among friends, and this book was no exception. I really enjoyed the dual timelines showing how their friendship unfolded and the drama surrounding Kit's disappearance. This isn't the fastest-paced thriller, but it moved well enough to keep me reading, and the twists at the end were a great reward!

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced egalley.

Wow. What a ride. This book was full of twists and turns, lies, deceit, manipulation, betrayal etc. I found the beginning to drag on but in the end saw it as all a necessary set up to the aforementioned twists, turns, lies, deceit, manipulation and betrayal. It was a unique story. I thought it was a very interesting to finally see a man in the role of the “unreliable narrator”.

3.5 ⭐️

This one got me from the first page!

Something about the way Jamie's perspective is written catches you from the beginning. You like him immediately, but you also get the sense that he knows the crap is about to hit the fan. Jamie, Kit and their commuter friends are an interesting little group!

This book did drag quite a bit for me in the middle, it seemed to be a very long set up where not a whole lot happens., however the end picked up again and brought it all together. I felt like some of the reveal was a little bananas, seemed pretty extreme, but I guess some people do crazy things.

Overall I really enjoyed it!

Louise Candlish returns with a novel of psychological suspense that has an absolutely wicked twist. Kit and Jamie have been commuting by ferry to London. When Kit fails to arrive for the ferry one Monday morning, Jamie thinks nothing of it until he is met on disembarking by two policemen. He and Kit had gotten into a fight on the way home on the previous Friday and now Kit is missing. They claim that a witness to the fight identified Jamie as the last person to see Kit.

Kit and his girlfriend Melia first met Jamie and Clare when Melia started working with her. They became casual friends and Jamie and Kit often stopped for drinks together on the way home from work. Envious of Jamie and Clare’s home and lifestyle, they didn’t realize that as a barista Jamie’s salary provided only pin money and the home belonged to Clare. Jamie is approaching fifty years old and is flattered when Melia begins to flirt. It soon leads to an affair. As much as Jamie loves Clare, they are not married and he realizes that he is now in love with Melia. When Kit and Melia decide to marry, it is Jamie and Clare who stand up fo them, but the affair continues. After Kit disappears, Melia refuses to see him and he is warned to stay away from her. Clare discovers their affair and ends her relationship with Jamie, but something does not feel right about the situation and she intends to find out what is going on. Did Kit fall prey to drug dealers that he could not pay, as Jamie suggests, or is he setting up an insurance scam.

There is little to like about Candlish’s characters. Jamie is happy to just get by working in a coffee shop. While Clare set up career counseling for him, he lies about attending the sessions. Kit and Melia are young, but are living beyond their means and want what others have right now. Melia’s nickname is Me and that says it all. Just when you reach a point where you may not care for them, along comes a twist that will have you racing through the rest of the book to see what happens to these people. I would like to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am fairly certain I have used the expression “killer commute” in my day, but this book puts an entirely different connotation behind it!

Jamie has blithely attached himself to a motley new group of friends since he started commuting on the riverboat. But when those friendships permeate other areas of his life, things get complicated. To say the least!
First day back to the daily grind after the Holiday break, Jamie’s new pal Kit isn’t on board. As he disembarks detectives are waiting to question him and he discovers Kit’s wife has left him several messages. The tale is tautly told, exposing the darker motivations that can be had in relationships both romantic and platonic, and those one has to one’s own ambition and sense of entitlement.

The author subverts the readers expectations with a simmering decomposing of plot and character that you won’t be able to predict.

I don’t often throw around terms favoured in books reviews like “Hitchcockian”, but it applies here. Ambivalent characters, misdirection of plot, and more you will just have to discover for yourself.

This book started slow, but then things started unraveling. I loved how the characters knew things not revealed yet to the reader. I loved the twists. In the end, I really couldn't put this one down, my first Louise Candlish. This is definitely a thriller that you'll be thinking about for quite some time. Thanks, Netgalley, for my arc!

First off, this is the best synopsis I have read in a LONG time. It’s second person, so what does it do? It sucks the reader up right into the story… YOU. Of course I was excited to dive into this mystery.

Immediately, well guess what? Someone is missing, and it happens to be your commute buddy (see what I did there?) Jamie and Kit have been commuting to work through riverboat, and after holiday break, Kit is a no show on their first day back to work. Normal? Well you could say Jamie has a bad rep for missing the ferry one time too many. But.. Melia (Kit’s wife) has been blowing up Jamie’s phone.. something is definitely wrong.

Soon Jamie realizes the severity of it, when the police arrive and begin to question him. Wait? Him? You ask? He’s just his buddy commuter what would he have anything to do with his dissappearence?

Well, there’s a witness you see.. that says they were together before Kit’s disappearance. I was hooked the entire way through this book, and I absolutely loved it! The narrative is not only first person, but it also takes us between timelines and gives us all the storyline details.. it’s up to the reader to try and figure out the mystery.. can you?

All the Stars! Loved it! I definitely recommend it! Read it!

Jamie Buckby departs the river commuter boat to head into work and is immediately met by two detectives who want to question him conceerning his friend Kit who is missing. Jamie is the last person to see him supposedly, when they had gotten into a heated argument. Now Jamie is a prime suspect in Kit's disappearance. As the days follow, Jamie tries to prove his innocence and determine what happened to his friend.
I am normally a fan of this author's books, but this one was a miss for me. I thought maybe it was a slow start but the entire book seemed to drag. It had a few plot twists, but not enough to redeem itself. None of the main characters were likeable, and there just wasn't much of a plot to it. I just didn't care for this one at all.

3.5 stars

I was immediately captivated by the gorgeous cover! I kept getting “Girl on the Train vibes” and really dove in excited. While the premise was enthralling and kept me turning pages, it was very lengthy and overall felt too drawn out. Some parts seemed a little absurd to me. There was a “twist”, however by the time I reached that point I was eager to finish because I was losing interest.

This was my first book by this author, and I would read another. Overall, not bad, but not great.
Thanks to publisher & netgalley for my copy!

Thank you to NetGalley, Louise Candlish and Atria books for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading another Candlish novel, but this one just really wasn't as interesting as her others to me for some reason. I really couldn't connect with any of the characters and they were mostly unlikeable in ways that made them annoying to me, I found it took so long to get to anything interesting in this one, that I found myself bored. But the halfway point, it gets much more interesting and I really wanted to know what was going on. There were a lot of good twists in the ending that i enjoyed.