Book Review: THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish

Title: THE OTHER PASSENGER

Author: Louise Candlish
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Read: May 2020

Expected publication: 1 July 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟

Book Description:

It all happens so quickly. One day you're living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn't turned up for the boat and his wife Melia has reported him missing.

When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends - ask Melia, she'll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your lives?

No, whatever danger followed you home last night, you are innocent, totally innocent.

Aren't you?

What attracted me to this book:

I really loved Louise Candlish’ previous books, OUR HOUSE and THOSE PEOPLE, especially the way she explored the dark side of suburbia and dynamics between neighbours and friends. Also, I’m one of those readers who enjoyed GOTT, so the commuter aspect of her latest novel THE OTHER PASSENGER really appealed to me.

My musings:

Jamie, a forty-something man with a dead-end job as a cafe barista and a fear of crowded public transport (this book was written before the covid crisis, so at the time those fears were not commonly shared by millions of others) befriends a fellow commuter on a London riverboat and finds himself as a suspect in his murder. Told through the eyes of Jamie and flipping back and forth between the past and the present, Candlish explores the events that got Jamie into his current unfortunate position.

As with her previous novels, Candlish doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to her characters’ less endearing qualities. So here we have Jamie, who has given up his career and is now aimlessly drifting through life, working in an underpaid dead-end job and living off his wealthy girlfriend Clare, who also owns the luxurious townhouse the couple live in. Far from being grateful for enabling his lifestyle, he has no qualms whatsoever about cheating on her with a woman two decades younger than her, justifying it with the fact that Clare has become less attractive and exciting to him as she is getting older. If you think that he is a bit of an asshole, you won’t find any of the other characters to be any more endearing. Kit, Jamie’s commuter acquaintance and pseudo friend, is constantly complaining about Clare’s inherited wealth and the fact that he and his girlfriend Melia have to live in a basic flat and aren’t able to afford any luxuries (boo-hoo!). Meanwhile, Melia is busy sleeping with Jamie whilst pretending to be Clare’s friend. What an utterly despicable bunch of characters!

My inability to feel even the slightest bit of warmth and empathy towards any of this lot was probably my big downfall here, because in its own right, the story was entertaining enough and contained enough twists to keep me guessing. But did I really care about the fate of any of them? Nope. To be fair, my timing was probably not great, because starting this book at the height of the coronavirus anxiety here, the many scenes of crowded commuter trains, parties, furtive sex in for-sale houses and parties felt not only unreal but also wrong – where is your social distancing, people? However, I am the sort of reader who needs at least one tiny redeeming feature in a character to be able to root for them, which was totally lacking for me here.

Summary:

All in all, whilst I appreciate Candlish’ penchant for exploring the dark dynamics between friends, neighbours and partners, the cast of totally unlikeable characters kept me from fully enjoying the twists and turns of her latest mystery. Whist the general plot was clever, my utter dislike of each and every character made me reluctant to pick up the book and left a shadow of a deep dark depression over the state of modern society. I had to get together with my own peer group to remind myself of the good in people. If you like twisty mysteries featuring ruthless and unlikeable characters, then you will hopefully enjoy it more than I did.

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.