Book Review: CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 by Lisa Unger

Title: CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45

Author:  LisaUnger
Read: July 2020

Expected publication: 6 October 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

What attracted me to this book:

What is it about public transport that makes for such a great setting? Perhaps the weird and wonderful bunch of people you encounter? Lisa Unger has gone with the theme and used it as a great premise for her latest mystery, and I couldn’t resist it.

My musings:

Striking up a conversation with a random stranger seems like a harmless thing to do, especially when the stranger initiates the conversation by telling you one of her own problems. In fact, it can be very cathartic to unburden yourself to someone you will most likely never meet again. This is what Selena Murphy is thinking when she meets a mysterious beautiful stranger on a train, and both women unburden themselves of their current life stresses. For Selena, it’s the knowledge that her husband has been sleeping with their nanny. She caught them in flagrante on the nanny cam, but is now unsure of what to do about it. Should she confront him? Sack the nanny? Ask for a divorce? Maybe the girl will just disappear, the stranger tells her, and with her all of Selena’s problems will simply go away. Which is a pleasant fantasy, until the nanny doesn’t turn up for work the next morning, and the police come knocking on Selena’s door ....

Lisa Unger is an author who knows how to create suspense from everyday situations, and she did a great job here. If you think that oversharing to a complete stranger is a strange premise, then you have never sat on a 20-hour international flight next to a slightly intoxicated weepy stranger who has decided to use you as an agony aunt (I now wear headphones when travelling alone, though I might be missing out on some great stories). Initially rolling out in four separate POVs, the story gained momentum with the disappearance of the nanny and Selena’s ever growing panic at her disintegrating once-comfortable life. The one thing I loved most about this book was that each and every character ended up surprising me, just when I thought I had them all worked out and put in their little stereotypical box. I read a lot of thrillers, and it takes a bit to blindside me, so this was a very pleasant turn of events.

Summary:

CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 (great title, BTW) will appeal to readers who enjoy making up wild and wonderful theories as to which one of the bunch of flawed characters in the story is lying – or do they all have something to hide? You will need to read it to find out. Refreshingly free of predictable stereotypes, this mystery was as compulsive as it was entertaining, even though I am glad that none of those people are in my life. With an innocent conversation between strangers on a train starting off an avalanche of terrible events, this could happen to any of us – or could it? Hasn’t your mother ever warned you about talking to strangers? Maybe Selena should have heeded that bit of advice.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Park Row for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.