This story took me by surprise. Lisa Lutz grabs your attention right away with Tanya finding her husband dead at the bottom of the stairs. She is not sure what happened, but she wonders if it was an accident or if he had some help down the stairs, either way she knows that she is going to be the number one suspect. After trying to resuscitate her husband with no luck, Tanya knows that she has to get out of there before the blame is laid on her.

Tanya calls an old friend, gets a new identity and some cash and is on her way. There are clues all along that something is going on with Tanya, but you can't put your finger on it at the beginning. It is not until the end of the story that we learn what it is with Tanya. During her running, Tanya (just going to keep with her original name here) meets a lady named Blue that she can identify with and they become good friends.

Lisa Lutz does drag you along on this wild ride with Tanya, but I think she does it in a good way and the ending will leave you with your jaw open. Once I got started on this book I did not want to put it down. I can't wait to see what is next from Lisa Lutz!

This book was a tantalizing page turner! I felt many different emotions, and fell deeply in love with the main character and wanted her to rise above everything towards the end. I enjoyed this book immensely!

The mystery has begun and Lisa Lutz kept me guessing until the end.

Tanya’s husband falls down the stairs and dies. When she finds him, she runs. Why?

On the run, she hooks up with Blue…WHOA. She is a badass and could definitely teach Tanya some lessons. Wonder what her story is?

Trouble comes looking for them and bodies fall.

How would you go about creating a new identity….a new life?

Their life keeps getting more complicated and I wonder what will become of them. My curiosity and Lisa’s pacing and suspense keep me tearing through the pages, wanting answers, but…

Lisa Lutz is not new to me. I have checked her books out from the library and enjoyed them. Passenger is full of a lot of words and some took me on long convoluted paths. Were they there to just lengthen the story or were they essential to the character development and suspense? I don’t expect fiction to be ‘real’ but, to me, a suspense novel like Passenger doesn’t need events just to have them. Know what I mean? It just slows the pacing and lessens the suspense and I like the white knuckled, breath holding, must know what happens next feeling.

I don’t quite get what’s going on and don’t find out why she is running until the last 20%. I do love that I didn’t know the story and had to read to the end to find the answers I was seeking.

Blue kept popping in and out and I loved it. There are no heroes here. All in all, I enjoyed the story.

I read an ARC, so I hope Lisa trims the fat and makes this the top notch book I feel it can be.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of Passenger by Lisa Lutz.

I absolutely loved this book. My sights are now set all things things mystery and full of suspense! From Tanya finding her husband dead, to running and running without stopping, I was always on the edge of my seat. I don't know how many people I've recommended this book to!

Well, I didn't have much luck with Lutz's other books, but I really wanted to give this one a try. I still am not a fan of her style, BUT I actually finished this book! And, I didn't strongly dislike it! :) There was definitely an element of wanting to know what was going to happen instilled in me, and that was a good thing. Can't say I'm interested in picking up another, but this one wasn't so bad. 😝

What a great mystery/thriller. When Tanya flees after her husband falls down the stairs, the reader was in for a wild ride.

I enjoyed this book, a real page turner. Tanya becomes Amelia and changes everything about her appearance and life when her husband dies. Can she stay hidden or will the law catch up with her

A nice tense and suspenseful thriller that isn't easy to put down!

All we know is that Tanya Dubois is on the run and that she didn't kill her husband, he fell down the stairs, hit his head, and died. Slowly as the narrative progresses we discover that Tanya has a past life which continues to haunt her. Via email conversations, we gather she is wanted for murder in her old home town and her former lover keeps her informed on the skuttkebutt which might be of interest. He's the only means she has to connect to her past - he "owes" her, but the hows and whys are a mystery. Lisa Lutz takes us in a journey as Tanya tries to once again establish a new life under a new name in the novel Passengers.

Labeled a psychological thriller, the reader is kept in the dark so that unexpected events come as a surprise. At her first stop, Tanya, now Amelia, frequents a bar run by Blue who knows a thing or two about maintaining a disguise. Whether this relationship helps or hinders Tanya's cause is a matter of opinion. In any event, you can tell by the chapter headings that names are frequently swapped out to enable a fresh start when there is even a hint that her past might be revealed. Tanya travels back and forth across the country, always discovering convenient dives where her drink of choice changes to meet her current persona. This is where she meets the majority of individuals who have an impact on her adventure, for better or worse (usually worse). The conclusion has a few surprises and some events which tarnish what could have been a perfect Happily Ever After Ending.

The plot moved along at a quick pace and it was interested how Tanya changed her appearance with each new identity, but the concept of living on the run was anything but glamorized. My body ached along with hers at the numerous hovels she visited to survive on a minimal cash flow. Ten years on the run did not seem to lead to much wisdom and I question some of her actions, because for such a nice girl, she was forced into some bad situations where her reactions weren't so nice at all.

On the plus side was some witty dialogue, but clever doesn't trump over the top plot twists used to add suspense to an otherwise straight forward story. In additional, the big reveal at the end of the book was so obvious I wouldn't call it a surprise. Less scene changes and more character development would have been an improvement, but overall, a quick, light read. Three stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears on my blog, Gotta Read.

This was an odd book. Starts with a body at the bottom of the stairs, and then a woman on the run. Sometimes too much drama surrounded the main character, and it wasn't always believable. At times the story seemed too long and drawn out, then the ending was rushed. I didn't love it, didn't hate it. I did like the suspense and would try this author again. Thanks Netgalley & Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else? Have you ever wanted to switch lives with someone else? Have you ever wished you could just start over? It seems like an innocent enough wish but identity is more than just a name. Identity is a story we tell ourselves. But what happens when that story is more fiction than fact... How do you separate the truth of who you are from the lie of who others think you are? Today's book The Passenger explores these intriguing questions.

From the first line in this book I was intrigued. As the story developed, I kept on wanting to turn the pages to have my questions answered. Who was this protagonist really? What had she done to make her run? Was she someone I should sympathise with or did her story hold more lie than truth? Was she a reliable narrator of her story or was her story just another smokescreen? 

Haven't we all, at one point or another, fantasised what it would be like to switch lives with someone else, even if for just a day? But the decision would be a very different one if you were forced to switch identities because you were on the run. 
This is what the protagonist in The Passenger is forced to do. Most of the story will have you guessing, hypothising and constantly asking questions. You're not told the truth or the reasons until the very end of this story. You won't necessarily agree with every choice the Protagonist makes but if you put yourself in her shoes, you'll understand that when you're truly on the run - not out of desire but out of necessity - sometimes you have to go with the decision that is the quickest and not necessarily the best. 

Lisa Lutz is a new author to me and this is her first book in the "thriller" genre. In The Passenger she has crafted an intriguing premise of a story and she takes you on a journey of twists and turns, both literally as her main character crisscrosses the country and psychologically as the character's real story is hidden between tricks of mirrors and smoke screens. 
I read this book through in one sitting. I give it a 4 stars rating because for me this was a mystery suspense and not a thriller. It also rates 4 stars because the story with its intriguing premise will keep you turning the pages. You won't always like the protagonist and often her choices and decisions will frustrate you but you'll want to keep turning the pages to see if she will redeem herself and if you'll finally get to the truth of her story. Intrigued? You'll have to just read The Passenger for yourself.

I thought that this book was just okay. I have been a fan of Lisa Lutz for a long time and have a great fondness for her Spellman Files series. I knew going into this book that this was going to be a completely different kind of story and I was really looking forward to seeing what she would do with it. There were things that I did like about this story but other elements were not quite as enjoyable.

The book opens with the death of Tanya's husband. Tanya immediately leaves town and starts working on assuming a new identity. Tanya tells us that she didn't hurt her husband, Frank, but we have no idea why she feels like she needs to leave town. I was really curious about her motivation to run. That wasn't a small decision and she knew exactly what to do so it was very obvious that Tanya had disappeared before. Tanya changes her name several times in the story but for the purpose of the review, I am just going to stick with Tanya.

Tanya meets Blue in a bar when Blue figures out that she isn't exactly who she says she is. They find themselves in a serious situation soon after they meet and they form an interesting friendship. Both Blue and Tanya are on the run and are both hiding who they truly are from the world. Blue's character was one that I didn't quite trust. Blue just seemed to have a more criminal mind than Tanya did.

I did want to keep reading so that I could learn why Tanya felt she had to run in the first place. If she didn't hurt her husband, it didn't make sense unless she had something else from her past. The emails that were sprinkled in the book between chapters quickly hinted that there was something from her past that we hadn't discovered yet. I also really liked the humor that was sprinkled throughout the book. This isn't a funny story but Lisa Lutz's sense of humor is still very evident in the writing.

I was really disappointed by the ending of this book. Seriously disappointed. I read all of those pages eagerly awaiting a big reveal that caused Tanya to be on the run and it just didn't do a lot for me. The big twist that was supposed to shock me at the end just added another layer of disappointment.

I am not really sure that I would recommend this book. I do think that a lot of readers will really enjoy this book a lot more than I did. I did like the book and I do consider 3 stars to be a good rating. It just wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. I do plan to continue reading Lisa Lutz's work in the future and commend her for writing a different kind of story.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley and Edelweiss.

If you read the summary, that's pretty much the book with little to add. It was not very exciting and you already knew where things were headed. It was just so-s0.

The woman that we meet at the beginning of The Passenger by Lisa Lutz is not Tanya. Nor is she Amelia or Debra or Emma or an of the other people she tells us she is. But she is interesting. She greets us with this introduction:

In case you were wondering, I didn't do it. I didn't have anything to do with Frank's death. I don't have an alibi, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Our protagonist is on the run, but unfortunately for her, she's not very good at it. She picks up names, identities, in a haphazard, desperate manner that often leaves her holding an empty bag. Along the way, she meets some curious characters, including Blue, another woman on the run that the reader isn't sure she, or our protagonist, should trust. It isn't until the very end that we learn why she's really been running for the last ten years, though it's referenced many times.

Lutz does an excellent job of hiding the twists and turns in this story and keeping it very exciting. Disappointingly, I think the biggest twist that Lutz intended was visible from miles away. Still, it was a fast, fun ride through a mystery that is exciting and well told.

I found the description of this book very intriguing but unfortunately the book itself was not.

While there was nothing essentially wrong with the book, it was slow & I felt like I was waiting for something to happen but every time that something did happen, it was very anticlimactic, There was no big twist, no dramatic event. It just plodded along through Nora / Tanya / Amelia / Sonia's life

The passenger by Lisa Lutz is a mystery and thriller read.
In case you were wondering, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s death. I don’t have an alibi, so you’ll have to take my word for it...
Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time.
She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.
It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?
This was a really enjoyable read with great characters. I wasn't sure about Tanya but I had to keep reading to find out how and why and if the truth will come out. Highly recommended. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.

Wow! Could not stop reading this one! Blue certainly was not a woman to be messed with, in a Dexter Harris type of way! Great read!

A very quirky mystery that I did not see coming! Suspenseful and enjoyable.