A stellar, twisting mystery told seamlessly between past and present. Engaging and startling, and impossible to put down until the very last word.

A Dark domestic thriller ⭐️⭐️⭐️3/5

Thank you simonandschuster and netgalley for this opportunity to read this for review purposes.

Synopsis: Jamie takes the commuter riverboat from his lovely home (inherited by his wife) to work everyday in Central London at a coffee bistro. Two days before Christmas, his friend Kit Roper who he travels with fails to turn up for their journey together.
Jamie is met by the police and taken in for questioning. His friend Kit has been reported missing by his wife Melia. Someone witnessed Jamie arguing with Kit on the boat home and that they believe Jamie murdered Kit.

WHO is the other passenger seeing all this?

I felt this novel dragged on a bit in start and also the middle because it went back and forth frequently without much excitement happening. It was also quite difficult to read when I didn’t like any of the characters, but it was good fun reading it all the same. I found the characters to be one dimensional. I did however and push through to see and enjoy the twists unfold in the end. I just expected it to be more fast paced so I think if you’re wanting a more slow burn unfolding this read would be for you.

DNFing.

Usually, domestic thrillers with affairs are a guilty pleasure for me and this has an intriguing premise and had potential but it didn't appeal to me. I just couldn't get into it. I think this was partially due to a joke about 2% in that I found rather distasteful. A character makes a joke about being able to find a flight somewhere cheap to a "terrorist" country such as Afghanistan or Morocco. I don't know why the author or editor thought this was okay but hopefully they chose not to include this in the finished copy.

Full disclosure: I was given a review copy of this book several months before publication.
I'd never read anything by Candlish before, but the quote on the cover came from Ruth Ware, which attracted my attention.
I read the book in about four days, which I think speaks for itself. I was drawn back in every time I put it down, and wanted to return to the characters to find out: what next?
I thought the whole gen X vs. millennials vibe was going to annoy me at first, but that recedes into the background after a few chapters, once the four characters at the centre of the story are established. Not to give too much away, there are a few twists and turns in the tale, some of them predictable, some not so much. If you're a fan of the genre I think you'll enjoy the ride. I did.

Let me start by saying that I was truly convinced that I should not finish this book at roughly the 50% mark because I felt nothing was happening. It seemed like we were building up the story to a higher level that just never seemed to happen...until finally we started to hit the TRUE mystery of the story 65-75% in.

And what we learn, well, it’s twisted. I certainly didn’t expect the level of deception that is revealed. Unfortunately for me, I could have done without the first 50% of the book, because it really didn’t do much for me.

I also wasn’t supremely impressed by the ending. It was more of a cop-out than anything else. It was lackluster and wholly underwhelming and unsatisfying to me. I hear great things about this author, so maybe this was just a fluke and didn’t sit well with me....

<i>I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for this advanced digital copy and the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed are my own. Upon publishing of this novel, I will also be posting my review to Amazon Canada.</i>

I could not put this book down! I really enjoyed it. While some of it was a bit predicable there were enough twists to keep it interesting! The characters were not particularly likable but still engaging. This was the first Louise Candles book I have read but it will not be my last!

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good variety of characters in it. It was a well written book. I hope to read more books by this author.

Well this took me on a twisty ride!

The clever way this is written has you questioning every guess you make.

The relationship drama seems to real, and because of that I found myself annoyed because I am not a fan of drama in my real life. However once everything came together, I can appreciate the build up.

The situations the characters find themselves in at the beginning are believable and relatable.

Wow. Makes you think twice about plotting the ‘perfect’ crime. So many plotwists I was waiting for another what’s next to happen. A thriller not easily put down. Highly entertaining. Louise Candlish never disappoints.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

This was a pretty good thriller. I felt the characters were really well developed and I had opinions of and attachments to them from early on. I really enjoyed reading from Jamie's perspective as he observed the differences and similarities between his generation and that of Melia and Kit. He felt very human, and made really compelling observations about work, money and relationships. His situation, being without assets or high income and with a partner who was rich was very unique and thought-provoking.
I definitely had suspicions about the ultimate twist, but was still surprised by many elements of it, and thought it was a really unique and engaging storyline. Even though I wanted redemption for Jamie in the end, I appreciated that the author kept things within the realities of the justice system.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Louise Candlish book and I’m already looking up her previous novels. In this book “The Other Passenger” I enjoyed her description of London from the riverboat. This book has got it all: love, money, and murder. I generally hate it when people say a book is twisty - but this one really is. Recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

This book was a decent thriller, although it was a little slow in the middle. It’s about Jaime who takes the river boat to London everyday with Kit and two other commuters. Jaime and his partner Clare are friends with Kit and his partner Melia. After almost a year into the couples’ friendship - during the holidays- Kit goes missing and Jaime finds himself interrogated about his friend’s whereabouts. The police say he’s the last known person to see Kit and according to an eyewitness the two were fighting.

This novel had plenty of twists at the end and wrapped up pretty well. It also kept me engaged for a good chunk of the book. I just felt the middle lagged and the authors’ writing style wasn’t my cup of tea. There were some awkward phrases and passive sentences. I did like her use of dialogue though. Also I found most of the characters had no depth, even Jaime who was the main character.

DNF @ 61% - I really tried to push through with this book. I may pick it up again later.

Here are some notes I wrote as I was reading:
- Chapter 1: Really hard to follow. Who ARE all these characters? They're not defined or described at all. I didn't even realize the main character was male until the very end of the chapter! Or Kit!
- Chapter 3 was too long and too much real estate talk.
- The writing style is odd, I can't quite click with it. It's hard to follow, and long-winded.
- @ 25% I think I was finally getting used to the writing style.
- @40% Considering DNF (since about 20%) - this story is all about the friends ' history and not about Kit' s disappearance. There's a lot of complaining/whining about the difference in generations, and the difference in a "real" job vs someone who works for minimum wage.
- @55% So the first half of the book laid out the past year, and the friends' history. Now maybe something interesting will happen?
- @ 61% Once Clare found out what Jamie was doing, and Jamie didn't seem to care, I just couldn't read anymore.

The Other Passenger will leave you thinking about the perfect crime! Is there such a thing? The damsel in distress, Melia, really has everyone going. Devious and vulnerable at the same time, she is able to wrap a man's desires right around her little finger. An aspiring actress, who never makes it "big", she is always acting on her own behalf! People fall over themselves as she wraps them into her web! Like a Black Widow Spider, she has all the angles in her web covered. Her hapless victims are just flailing in her deceits and can't see that she is just waiting to destroy them for her needs.

The Other Passenger leaves you reeling and not knowing what is truth until the very end. It's a great read that I enjoyed and I wish Louise Candlish much success with the upcoming publishing of her book!

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in return for a review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were a lot of surprises and twists, but the author did a great job of presenting them in a way that was easy to follow. Sometimes the complexity of the crime tends to lose me for a bit, but that did not happen in the book. The details were also was not far fetched; a crime could have happened like this in the real world. I recommend this book to others who like a good murder mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an e-ARC of The Other Passenger in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Passenger had quite a compelling premise, a beautiful cover, and praise from some of my favourite authors of the mystery-thriller genre. I wanted to like this book, going in.

That said, I found that the novel was lengthier than necessary and often repetitive. The flashback-styled storytelling made the novel feel more like a drama than a thriller after a while. It felt as if the main cast of characters were continually complaining and obsessing over the same issues time and time again.

It was only following the big twist just after the mid-section of the novel that the pacing of the plot truly picked up, in my opinion. Even then, I had a lingering suspicion of what the book's outcome would be and ultimately, it proved itself to be correct. Arguably, none of these characters are moral individuals but with close attention to the actions and comportments of certain individuals, it's not hard to ascertain the true villain in the story.

Plot and pacing aside, the writing in The Other Passenger is immaculate. Candlish truly has a knack for stringing beautiful sentences together and each chapter concluded beautifully on a note that was the perfect balance of clever and spine-chilling.

In essence, The Other Passenger had remarkable writing but was long and somewhat predictable.

This story really had an Agatha Christie type vibe, I did not see the ending coming at all, which is a good thing, it was very nicely done. The story is told in the present and flashbacks to about a year earlier, Jamie works in a cafe in London and takes a river boat along the River Thames to get there due to extreme claustrophobia when in enclosed spaces (having had an extreme panic attack on the tube when a train broke down in the tunnel). He previously had an office job and switched to the lower paying cafe due to his claustrophobia, his longtime girlfriend Clare gifts him with job therapy sessions in an attempt to get him back into an office environment. He meets Kit on the boat and they strike up a friendship with a couple of other regular riders. He is met by two policemen while getting off the boat at his regular stop, they have some questions for him about the disappearance of Kit, who has not been seen for several days, and the last person to see him was Jamie. In the flashback part we learn that Jamie is having an affair with Kit's girlfriend (who became Kit's wife not long after), Jamie is touching 50, Melia is about 20 years younger. Their affair takes place in various vacant homes that Melia in her job as a realtor (who works in the same office as Clare) shows to clients. The flashbacks and present eventually get to the same date and that's when things get real interesting and very twisty, I literally raced through the last portion, each revelation more astounding than the last. Highly recommended. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Other Passenger was such a fab book that had me hooked from the start. Two men meet and share a daily commute in London on the ferry, which is a somewhat unique setting. One day, our narrator, Jamie, finds his friend Kit hasn’t turned up for the boat ride and his wife has reported him missing. The book alternates chapters from the start of the two commuters relationship, and the days following Kits disappearance. I had an inkling of what was afoot early on, and was pleasantly surprised by subtle twist after twist! I highly recommend this page turner.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Simon and Schuster Canada and the author Louise Candlish for an ARC of The Other Passenger. I LOVED this book! I have whiplash from all the shocking twists and turns!

The story is told through a male perspective which I’m honestly not used to but I really enjoyed a different sort of narrator. Jamie is our main character and the center of this story.

The story flashes back and forth in time between the present and the past. Jamie is being interviewed by police regarding his missing friend, Kit, since Jamie was the last person to see him alive.

The story then flashes back to a year previous and the budding friendship between Jamie and Kit and their respective partners, Clare and Melia. The details of the past year start to paint a picture of what may have happened to Kit.

But even if you think you know what happened, you’re probably wrong.

I could NOT put this book down! I had no idea what was going to happen and the second I thought I knew what was going on, the author would pivot again and add another crazy twist!

I’m rating this book 4/5! The authors adds a wildly juicy epilogue that perfectly ties up all the loose ends! If you love thrillers, you’ll love this book!

'For everyone who has ever been tempted to compare up...' is the dedication that starts off this book about deceit and jealousy. The book centers around Jamie, part of two couples and a group of commuter friends that spend a great deal of time with each other without really knowing each other at all. Underlying all the relationships is anger about financial inequalities, job status, youth, and success. When someone goes missing and Jamie is being accused of wrong doing we move back and forth in time to see how the friendships deteriorated and emotions escalated. Candlish laid out a narrative that had me believing one thing and at least twice I found my self surprised when I found I was wrong. As with all thrillers, there is a lot of manipulation to buy into and Candlish writes in a way that makes it easy to be lead astray, and enjoy it while it happens.

'I may not have killed a man, but I look exactly like someone who has.'

I have read two other books by Candlish: 'Our House' and 'Those People', which I also enjoyed. This book was similar in pace and character insight, and just as surprising in places.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an early version in exchange for an honest review.