I don't like Jamie. He is our main character and he is who we have to hear the story through. At first he's just annoying and he just gets worse and worse. He works in a coffee shop and lives with his long time girlfriend in her parents' house. He doesn't seem to take life seriously for someone who is turning 50. He doesn't try very hard. He starts commuting to work on the Thames and befriends a group of people. One of them disappears. Almost immediately Jamie is stopped on the way to work and questioned. What really happened to Kit?

I don't like Kit either. He's kind of a...which word can I put in a review? A jerk. That seems safe and inadequate. His wife Melia. Don't like her either. Jamie's partner Claire...she's OK? Not a lot of people to like here. Doesn't matter though. I kind of coasted through the first half wondering if I cared and then I did. Everyone in this book thinks they are far more clever than they really are. Except Claire. She seems pretty clear.

Once this book gets going you will be glad you sat through the details of the beginning. They were purposely downplayed. Soon, everything gets nuts. And I absolutely love the way it ended. Truly satisfying. Get through the first half. You will not be sorry.

3.25*
Jamie has taken a job somewhat below his skill set (at least his partner Clare thinks so). All the
same, Jaime is happy working the café with not a care in the world. Well, except his commute. But that’s about to change!

Jamie and Clare befriend a young couple Kit and Melia hoping it will bring back a spark to the partnership and perhaps life.

Jamie and Kit start commuting into the city together on a riverboat. Perhaps a drink on the boat on the way home. Maybe even a second one at the pub once back on dry ground.

But when Kit vanishes all eyes turn to Jaime. After all, he was the last person seen with Kit. And witnesses say they weren’t exactly getting along!

This is the third book I’ve read by Louise Candlish. And I must admit I’m a bit hit and miss with her work. Though this latest falls right down the middle.

None of the characters are very likable. But that worked well in this case.

I enjoyed the premise and writing. And though I had some of the storyline figured out, the author was still able to throw in a few surprises for me. Thank you!

A buddy read with Susanne

Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...

Thank you to Megan Rudloff at Atria Books via Netgalley

3.5 stars

Jamie has been living an easy life. He has lived with his girlfriend, Clare for ten years. She comes from money and the house belongs to her. She pays for things but would like for Jamie to get a higher paying job. He once had a white-collar job, but his agoraphobia makes it difficult to take the tube, so he is now working in a coffee shop. He rides the commuter riverboat with his friend and neighbor, Kit.

On Monday, Jamie notices that his friend, Kit has not shown up to take the 7:30 a.m. riverboat that they ride together. When Jamie departs the riverboat at the London Eye, he is met by two police officers. Kit's wife, Melia has reported him missing. Apparently, Jamie was seen arguing with Kit the Friday before. What was their argument about?

For me this was a slow burn for most of the book. I am not a slow burn kind of girl, but for some reason, this did not bother me as it does with other books. Candlish threw in just enough twists and turns to keep my interest piqued and have me wanting to know more. Reading this book was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know something is going to happen, but you must bid your time, and wait as things begin to unravel.

The story is told through Jamie's POV, and we are privy to his insights, commentary and thoughts. just when you think you have him figured out.... well.... The characters are an interesting lot. The two couples become fast friends but then things being to cool off between all of them – or does it? The less you know about them the better. Go in as blind as possible.

The plot was intriguing. There is deceit, betrayals and lies. It kept things juicy - just at a slower pace. I do not want to say too much about it, but I enjoyed all the tiny reveals and realizations. I also enjoyed watching Jamie squirm and how things were resolved BUT I wondered if the book was ever going to end. I am not talking about the page length but when I thought things were done and the book was over....it was not. Sone will enjoy this. In my opinion, things could have been a little tighter at the end. Having said that, I enjoyed learning what happened with the characters. I was happy for one character had a little chuckle at the expense of others.

Not my favorite book by Candlish, but still an enjoyable, worthwhile and the perfect read while commuting to work. I believe I would have enjoyed this more as an audiobook.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the eARC in return for an honest review.
🚢
The story starts out with Jamie, our main character, waiting for the ferry. His friend Kit didn't show up for their morning commute.
Kit is missing and the police thinks Jamie has something to do with it.
Another passenger saw Jamie and Kit get into an argument on the night of his dissaperance.
📚
I was so into this book! I has a few theories and I was wrong but the twist was so good and the end was very satisfying!
4⭐

“It was impossible to tell a pauper from a prince in this city”.

Jamie Buckby, the narrator of our story, is a strange and unsettling character. A self-proclaimed provocateur, Jamie is arrogant, his humor skirting a definite edge, his relationship with his long-time lover Clare shuttered and cautious. Pushing fifty, he works a minimum wage job, shares a massive home with Clare in one of the most prestigious areas of London, and “peddles” a life and a story we are not exactly sure is completely reliable.

The plot roils when middle-aged Jamie and Clare meet young Kit and his girlfriend Melia, two gorgeous twenty-somethings who feel like the “cool kids” and invoke a burning envy for youth now lost. Kit and Melia, on their end, party like there’s no tomorrow, but at the same time, are drowning in debt and seriously resentful of the lifestyle that Jamie and Clare, and other successful boomers, have been able to achieve in the city.

As the green-eyed monster creeps, it’s not clear at all, and becomes even less so, if there are any “princes” at all in the motley of characters we soon find ourselves embroiled with.

Struggling with a phobia of underground tunnels and public transit, Jamie has battled panic attacks that turn his commute into a hellish ordeal until he discovers the “river-bus” - a catamaran powered ferry system reaching all the major downtown stops. As Kit and Jamie become daily river-bus commuters, their mutually covetous world becomes even more psychologically intertwined.

Twists and turns alone do not do this delicious and dark character-driven plot justice, as their desires and machinations quickly build to a claustrophobic fever-pitch that never really lets up.

All in all a very devious and delightful book; I couldn’t put it down and read it straight through one dull and dreary afternoon.

A great big thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish is a highly recommended psychological thriller.

Jamie Buckby first meets the younger couple Melia and Kit through his partner, Clare. Clare invited the couple over one evening after she met Melia through work. The evening was enjoyable and that was when Jamie talked Kit into joining him in taking the ferry from St. Mary's into London rather than the London Tube. Jamie was once a marketing executive, but after he had a terrifying panic attack on the London Tube, he became a barista. Clare, however, is a real estate agent who is doing very well and they live in a high end home owned by her parents, so she has been understanding, to a point, about his sudden low-paying job. He and Kit start taking the ferry together and quickly form a small group with two other commuters, Steve and Gretchen. Soon it becomes clear to Clare and Jamie as the lives of the two couples become more entwined that Melia and Kit are drowning in debt, living way beyond their means, and Kit may have a drug problem. Soon things become even more complicated.

Jamie is the narrator. He starts out as an average likeable man, who is approaching 50, but soon it becomes clear that he may not be a reliable narrator or even the man you think he is. His actions, as well as the actions of other characters, might surprise and shock you as the novel continues and the deceptions mount. The description of Jamie's panic attack in the tube is remarkably captured and you will feel empathy for him that will later be sharply contrasted with his other actions.

This is a very well-written, absolutely irresistible and closely planned and plotted psychological thriller. Everyone is scheming in some way and they all have secrets to hide. The narrative is wonderfully complex, full of details that you need to pay attention to in order to fully appreciate events that will occur later in the novel, because nothing is exactly as it seems and there are clues everywhere. The middle of the narrative slows down as far as action, but there are still details you need to take note of while reading. The final denouement is wonderfully twisty.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and submitted to Amazon.

4.25 stars

The Other Passenger is full of twists, turns, and surprises. I thought I knew what was happening, and then everything was turned on its head. Then, I got comfortable with the new details, and it all happened again. Trust no one, and don’t believe anything- nothing is what it seems with this story. The ending was a bit amusing, but it definitely fit with the character and plot developments. Overall, this was a solid, suspenseful, entertaining read.

The Other Passenger has it all: love, betrayal, secrets, lies, murder and just some downright nasty characters.

My favourite nasty characters are Jamie and Melia who does not even report Kit missing and he is no shining star.

I love it.

The pages turn quickly, there is red herrings and twists and turns that keep the light on at night.

This book would make a great movie.

Louise Candlish never disappoints and The Other Passenger is no exception so put this book close to the top of your TBR pile.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for a twisted but compelling read.

Jamie meets Kit on a riverboat that they take to work each day. They and their partners become unlikely friends given the vast age difference between the two couples.
Until the day Jamie gets off the boat to find the police waiting for him. He is questioned about the disappearance of Kit.
This book dragged for me until more than half way through. The ending chapters made up for that somewhat. Overall I liked the book but it just went on too long before getting to the interesting parts.
I have heard great things about this author and will try other books by her in the future.


Thanks to netgalley and Atria Books for the arc.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Overall, this was a nice, quick read, which I always appreciate. I will say that much of the mystery and the double-crossing was quite predictable, but Candlish is such a competent writer that it was still enjoyable.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

WOW, what a twist - and then ANOTHER twist. Definitely enjoyed this read. The beginning does in fact start out a little bit on the slower side but totally worth the investment as you get into the second half. I loved the first person narration and also enjoyed the fact that I was not rooting for any of these characters - that was definitely a change of pace for me, I'm usually in someone's corner, but it felt good to just be an onlooker throughout this book.

Another great book that proves you don't know people as well as you think you do!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Louise Candlish - 5 stars - her books keep getting better!

Jamie takes the riverboat to his job as a barista at a coffee shop in London along with a group of friends who have dubbed themselves the "river rats." But on the morning of December 27, 2019, Jamie's friend Kit doesn't get on board and his wife, Melia, reports him missing. Soon the police are at the coffee shop questioning Jamie - another passenger on the boat saw him arguing with Kit the Friday before and Jamie is the last one to see him alive.

The less you know going into this book, the better. The story is told over a short period of time but as Jamie talks to police, the story goes back in time to fill in all the blanks. This is the ultimate cat-and-mouse story and the twists had me glued to the pages - I never saw them coming! Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed The Other Passenger - it took me a couple tries to get into it, but by about chapter 5, I was hooked! The pace quickly built and had so many twists that I didn’t see coming which was a pleasant surprise. As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, this novel was very unique in storyline and honestly kept me guessing throughout. I would highly recommend this juicy, well written novel for anyone who loves a good suspense read!
This is my first Louise Candlish book and definitely won’t be my last!

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books and Simon & Schuster Canada for both giving me access to an ARC!

As I approached the halfway point of this book, I wondered how there could possibly be that much left in the story to tell- it felt like the story was approaching a natural conclusion. But then it became clear that there was going to be a lot more that needed to be told. I thought the author crafted this story cleverly, though the beginning moves a bit slowly, and I think everything is explained well enough that I never felt like the story tricked me.

Underneath the skin of this propulsive thriller involving the sudden disappearance of a charismatic young man is a thoughtful, socially conscious examination of contemporary mores, and how modern punishments fit modern crimes.

Jamie Buckby is a man of seeming contradictions. Approaching fifty, he lives in an expensive London home with his partner, Clare, but abruptly quit his job as a marketing executive after a traumatic experience. Now he works in a cafe, preparing drinks and sandwiches for less than the cost of living, enjoying the job despite Clare’s nagging to get his career back on track.

Clare herself works for a leasing company, making a good salary though she is, frankly, fortunate to have parents who bought a posh townhouse on the cheap decades back, when the neighborhood it’s in was considered less than fashionable. Now Clare and Jamie live there rent-free while her parents enjoy life in their Edinburgh hometown. Jamie is never not aware of what this means for their relationship’s power dynamic, even as he’s occasionally annoyed by how cavalierly Clare treats her privilege:

QUOTE
“Nice of you to pick up the bill for the champagne,” I said, when we were on our own.

“I just thought, you know, we need to remember how lucky we are,” she said, which I knew from previous declarations was code for, <i>We need to remember how talented and hardworking we are</i>--because people who’ve been helped never accept that their success is a simple consequence of that. They think they’d have been just as successful without it.

Also, since I was being pedantic, she meant <i>I</i>, not <i>we</i>. She hadn’t consulted me about the champagne because she had no need to. Conversely, I couldn’t have made the gesture <i>without</i> consulting her.
END QUOTE

It’s actually Clare who brings about Jamie’s friendship with their young neighbor Kit Roper. Kit’s girlfriend Melia has started in a junior agent position at Clare’s company, and Clare soon becomes enraptured enough of the charming younger woman to invite her and her partner over for drinks. The twenty-something Melia and Kit form a fast, if unlikely friendship with the older couple. Discovering that Kit has a shared distaste for underground commuting to the city, Jamie joins him in getting an annual river bus pass, with the two men falling into a routine of commuting together to work along the Thames. But as time passes their relationship begins to fray, till one day a pair of police detectives is waiting at the quay as Jamie disembarks, wanting to ask him several questions about his now-missing friend Kit.

Jamie has no idea where Kit had gone off to after their last fight over pre-Christmas drinks. They hadn’t contacted each other over the holiday break, and he and Clare had gone up to Edinburgh to visit her parents, ignoring Melia’s voicemails for the duration. Now he’s back in London, being questioned and wondering if he’d done the right thing ignoring the Ropers. Clare had already started to disengage from the younger duo and had warned Jamie off too, but he hadn’t been quite as ready to end things:

QUOTE
I have a sudden image of Kit at our Christmas drinks (<i>inaugural</i> Christmas drinks, he kept saying in that significant way of his, like he’d just invented the word, like it was some kind of legacy, a gift from him to us); appearing at our tiny table in the bar with a round of drinks, empties swept to the edge. HIs voice was thick with mockery as he raised a glass in my direction: “To Jamie, who thinks his generation’s the only one that knows how to drink…”

Was there… was there some sense of farewell in that thespian flourish? What was it he’d said to us that time about suicide? <i>If I wanted to end it all, I’d fuck off and do it privately</i>...

Even as I resolve not to repeat his words to these detectives, I’m visited by a sense of loss so profound I find it hard to breathe.
END QUOTE

Jamie swears that though he and Kit parted on unpleasant terms, he left Kit safe and sound. But the detectives are hinting that another passenger saw him doing something highly suspicious, something that warrants their focus on him as prime suspect in Kit’s disappearance. Now Jamie’s paranoid that someone’s out to frame him for something he didn’t do. But does he have good reason to fear an innocent witness, or is there someone from his past determined to make him pay for his sins?

Most thrillers this twisty aren’t usually also this deep, so I was mightily impressed by Louise Candlish’s ability to not only surprise with criminal mischief but also to examine the contemporary social pressures that can cause people to behave badly. Kit’s irresponsibility is contrasted with Clare’s smug superiority -- both are made, perhaps surprisingly, sympathetic people despite their equal refusal to acknowledge reality. But it’s in Melia and, especially, Jamie that Ms Candlish upends the traditional casting of thrillers like these to create indelibly unique fictional people. The English economy, like the American, has saddled its young with crippling student debt, while making it extraordinarily difficult for entry-level workers to make a living wage. Melia and Jamie are both caught up in a financial insecurity that society tells them they ought to be able to rise above, despite hamstringing all their efforts at turning work into wealth. How can crime not seem a natural next step, when legitimate payoffs are so hard to come by?

It was almost hard to believe that I was reading a thriller at first, instead of a meditation on middle age and economic survival as we follow Jamie’s narrative back and forth in time, examining his friendship with Kit. I’d highly recommend The Other Passenger for anyone who enjoys thoughtful, literary cultural commentary with their gripping murder mysteries.

Ohhhhh, this was dark and delicious! It’s filled with so many twists and turns—and an unreliable narrator, to boot.

I didn’t like Jamie much. Not once he cheated on Clare. I couldn’t believe he fell for Melia. She seemed shady straightaway.

I couldn’t figure out who the mysterious passenger was…which made sense when all came to light. I found the constant twists and backstabbing to be fascinating. Not necessarily unexpected. I actually *WANTED* Jamie to lose. He was lazy, careless, and too comfortable in his situation.

Truly brilliant, this is one that will stay with me for a long while.

I LOVED Louise Candlish's other book Our House, but this one didn't quite hit me the same way. It felt long, and I figured out the twist pretty quickly. There were some interesting things along the way, but I just wasn't pulled in the way I usually am with a thriller. It was good but not great.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Jamie is approaching fifty, works as a barista at a London cafe, and takes the water taxi to work every day. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Christopher ‘Kit’ Roper, over a decade his junior, who works in an insurance firm and has a party-minded lifestyle. Shortly after the Christmas holiday, Kit goes missing, and Jamie becomes the prime suspect in his disappearance. The kicker is that Jamie hasn’t seen Kit himself since their night of drunken revelry prior to the holiday.

What I Liked:
• nonlinear timeline that slowly revealed key plot points
• a cast of twisted, devious, and detestable characters
• twists and turns until the very end
• unreliable narrator (or perhaps a narrator that doesn’t share quite everything)
• deeper character exploration (we all know I’m a sucker for contemporary lit)
• interesting side exploration of generational and socioeconomic differences

What I Didn’t Like:
• ending went on for a beat too long, I would have been more satisfied had it been a bit more ambiguous
• though I love slow burns, this one seemed a little too slow at certain points
• I wanted to know more about the villains inner machinations/motivations, I feel like the explication really skimped on the deets

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

This was quite another twisted book by Louise Candish--just like her previous books Our House and Those People, which I loved, her latest thriller had a shocker of a twist that I didn't see coming!

This is a story about lies, deception, infidelity, betrayal jealousy between two couples: Jamie and Clare, both in their late 40's, they've been together a decade, they're financially stable mostly because Clare is from a wealthy family and has a stable job, they live in an affluent neighborhood in a house given to Clare by her parents, while Jamie is working at a coffee shop after leaving a well paying marketing job after suffering a mental health crisis. Then there's Kit and his girlfriend (later wife) Melia--both are young, Millenials, they have good jobs but are deeply in debt with student loans and credit cards, yet that doesn't stop them from living way beyond their means and wanting more, more, more and constantly talking about how unfair it is that they can't have what Clare and Jamie have.

While they envy Clare and Jamie's affluent house and lifestyle, Clare and Jamie can't help but envy their youth and the couple becomes "friends" of sorts, dinners, etc. Kit and Jamie begin to take the 7:30 am commuter riverboat to work together every morning until the morning of December 27th, when Kit misses the boat and Jamie is met by two police officers who inform him that Kit is missing and Jamie was the last person to see him, which makes him a suspect.

The story is told in Jamie's POV, so we hear the past of how he met Kit and the time leading up to Kit's disappearance, and the present of what happened after Kit went missing. I admit that I thought the story was a slow start, but I'm glad that I stayed with it but I will also say that there were parts at the very end that I thought dragged as well, so the book could have been shortened a bit. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it and where Candlish took the story! There were many twists in the last 2/3 of the book that just blew me away. This was a pageturner, and I can't wait to read more by Candlish!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

What are friends for? A great, super twisty, sneaky tale of friendship, jealousy, betrayal, infidelity, murder, and money. A well executed story with intriguing, devious characters, none of whom are particularly likeable. Quite a few surprises near the end that I did not see coming! This is the first book I’ve read by this author but will definitely look for more.