This one just isn’t working for me at all… it’s very slow paced and at 28% I’m just not really interested at all 🤷‍♀️

Slow burn thriller with unlikeable characters. Action didn’t really pick up until well over 50% in. Could have been shortened. The writing was good but unfortunately this one was not for me.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for an early cooy in exchange for an honest review.

The book just seem to drag on with little happening between the characters who were all unlikable. Greed for money and an upscaled life style makes all the characters say and do things that caused hard feelings and murder. I was more interested in the last twenty pages where a bit more insight into Jamie Kit, and Me was portrayed.

The Other Passenger starts when the police stop Jamie on his way to work to inquire about his missing friend. As we read we learn about Jamie's complicated relationships with his partner Clare, and friends Kit and Melia and the events that led up now. It's a well paced thriller with twists that I did not see coming. I will be recommending this one to customers, it's a very good read!

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.

Jamie and Claire seemingly are living the highlife off of Claire’s inherited house and money. This is in stark contrast to their new younger friends Kit and Melia who are up to their eyeballs in debt, drugs and living a bit of a wild life on the edge. Kit and Jamie begin to commute to work together on the ferry and meet a couple of other friends along the way and commute together on the ferry and go to the bar and become a circle of friends. After a bit though secrets, lies, drugs and jealousy get in the way of their friendships. One day Jamie is exiting the ferry and is stopped by two detectives asking questions about the whereabouts of Kit who has gone missing. Now seemingly you’re the prime suspect. Do they have sufficient evidence? Are you innocent or are you guilty? You did have a fight with your friend the night before and another passenger was a witness to this. Who is this other passenger? Is it someone from your past? Someone with a grudge or is this some unknown passenger you’ve never met who has witnessed a fight between the two of you? Who can you trust who can you turn to? These are all questions that are hard to determine. With some surprising twists and turns this book kept my interest and I did not expect what was to come!
Thank you for the opportunity to review and read the book ahead of time Net Galley and the publishers at Simon and Schuster

Candlish is a British author of several psychological thrillers, including "Those People" and "Our House". This new release is in the genre and is set in London. Jamie and Clare live together in a huge home owned by Clare's parents. Clare works in real estate and Jamie is a barista as he has lost his 'real job' due to severe claustrophobia limiting his commuting options. He now commutes to the coffee shop by riverboat. On the commute he has befriended Kit, a younger man who works in insurance. Kit and his wife Melia become close friends with Jamie and Clare. When Kit goes missing during the Christmas holidays, Jamie becomes the prime suspect when a passenger on the riverboat reported they had been fighting. This is a fun read with some decent twists and a good recommendation for fans of the genre.

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!

Sorry to say but this was a miss for me. I made it about 30% but just couldn't connect with the characters plus the slow pace didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy of "The Other Passenger" in exchange for my honest opinion.

The story starts on December 27, 2019 When Kit isn't on the catamaran heading to work from St. Mary's Pier to Waterloo. Jamie is met at the pier by the police asking about when he last saw Kit because he has been reported missing.

The moves all over the place in time starting in January 2019, going back to December 27th and then to February 2019 and so on making it a bit difficult to follow along.

It's getting harder and harder to pick up a book with an unreliable narrator premise and be even remotely surprised but Louise Candlish pulls it off and sticks the landing! Particularly liked the atmospheric evocation of that strange limbo week between Christmas and New Year's, and how income, real estate, and generational customs are brought in as part of the tension. Delighted to include it in the July instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month's top fiction for Zed, Zoomer magazine’s reading and books section (full review and feature at link).

What a roller coaster!
Well written Unreliable first person narrative. Brilliant twists & entertaining.
A seductive summer thriller!

I was really looking forward to this book as I have read Our House and Those People and enjoyed them but I was very disappointed with this one

I felt nothing towards any of these characters and too be honest I really didnt care about what happened to of any of them.

Its too bad as this was a good story but the characters dark ways just didnt do it for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

All of my thoughts are my own

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC of The Other Passenger. One of the best books I've read in a while, so many twists and turns, you don't know what direction the book will take next. There is so much thought that has gone into developing the plot and characters, it had me guessing throughout. I will be looking into more books by Louise Chandlish.
Main character Jamie, a 50 yr old employee in a coffee shop, meets Kit, a 20 something you old, on his way to work,they hit it off and  they decide to arrange a dinner party with their significant others, Jamie's girlfriend Clare and Kit's girlfriend Melia. The night of the dinner party, all 4 seem to get along, while Jamie is getting something from the kitchen, Melia approaches him and starts kissing him, Jamie know this is wrong, but can't stop himself. The fling turns into a story you wouldn't believe
This is a must read, it's exciting, a page turner!

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

It's all about the money: your white collar employment status, your bank balance, your address, your clothes.
Jaime and Clare are living in a house owned by Clare's parents in a gentrified part of London, which Clare will inherit one day. Clare has a great, high paying job in real estate, but Jaime lost his own white collar job and is now an assistant manager of a cafe. Clare pushes at Jaime to "get motivated" and climb back aboard the white collar gravy train, but Jaime isn't as fussed about his low-paying, low profile job. (I got the impression that he was enjoying the reduction in stress levels. I totally sympathized with that!)

Jaime and Clare start seeing a lot of Kit and Melia - an up and coming young couple who envy Jaime and Clare's lovely home and its location. Jaime and Kit share a ride on the ferry every morning and become drinking buddies. But one day, Kit disappears and the blood-soaked clues all point to Jaime. Is he being framed?

As soon as the discussion about "life insurance" was raised in the first few chapters, I could tell where this one was going, and who the guilty party was. That was not a very subtle placement of a clue - or maybe I've been reading too many thrillers and I'm better at spotting them? The court room antics were mostly off page and I found that a lot of this novel was "on the surface" for me.

I did like that bid of irony at the end, but not the fact that the perpetrator got to con another unsuspecting target. Justice was not done. I rarely like those types of endings. I rarely mind plots where evildoers get done in by their victims. Revenge best served cold plots often intrigue me. All that patience and planning!

None of the characters in this story were totally likable. It really was all about the money, which, for me, is a complete turn off - hence my lower rating. I avoid pretentious people like the plague. I certainly don't enjoy reading about them.

The Other Passenger is a suspenseful thriller that leaves you with questions right to the very end,
Jamie and Kit ride the ferry to work together everyday. Just as an usual friendship develops, Kit doesn’t show up on the boat one day. As everyone fights to figure out where Kit is, something sinister appears to be rumbling under the surface.
I enjoyed this book as I had to fight to stay one step ahead of the plot. Characters development kept me flipping to who I wanted to end up as the good guy.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for my honest review

Jamie and Clare are Gen Xers and become fast friends with Kit and Melia (in their late 20s/early 30s) in January of 2019. Clare and Melia work together. Kit and Jamie start taking the public transit boat on the Thames together. Just before Christmas, Kit disappears; Jamie was the last person to see him, as far as the police know.

This started off slow, but really picked up about half-way through, then again with about a quarter of the book left. Because of the slow start, I wasn’t sure I’d rate it as highly as I did, but the second half pulled me in more, and there were some good twists! I don’t think any of the characters were particularly likeable, though. The book opens with Kit’s disappearance, then backs up as Jamie tells his story. That first half (while it’s still a bit slow), is mostly snippets of each month leading up to Christmas.

This was a solid murder mystery. There were definitely sufficient red herrings to keep me guessing. I would definitely recommend this to other readers who enjoy a good twisty book.

I found this book to be a slow burner and felt that it dragged a bit, but once the second half came it got a lot better. I didn’t find the ending to be shocking even as I kinda saw it happening. I actually found all the characters to be unlikeable in their own ways, but they didn’t make for a bad story!

This was the first book I read from this author and I might not rush to read other ones but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t.

This was just a good read. Characters were well developed and the pace was fantastic. If you like a good thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page.