Finally! My book order from the library has arrived. And since I only had 3 weeks to read this book (I am sure it is still quite popular and I wouldn’t be able to renew it) I quickly started to read it, with the aim of finishing it within the 3 week loan period. Well that wasn’t hard to do. I read it within a week – before bed time, during breakfast, school pick up, even up to midnight!  Yes it was quite gripping; so unlike the first two books I read and reviewed at the start of the year.

Well I suppose the author Paula Hawkins had a no-fail-thriller-gripping writing formula (the same one used by the authors of The Da Vinci Code and Gone Girl) so this book was bound to be a page-turner.

Ok the story is written in first person by three female characters – the main one being Rachel Watson followed by Megan Hipwell and Anna Watson – in a diary type style entries (morning, afternoon, evening entries). Rachel is a sad case potato – divorced, drunk and unemployed. She spends her week going up and down on a train to London to a phantom job while drinks alcohol on the train. During those train rides, she ‘gets to know’ the houses and their occupants along the train line – one house especially being on 15 Blenheim Road with its handsome couple dwellers ‘Jess’ and ‘Jason’.

One day, she finds out ‘Jess’ (whose real name is Megan Hipwell) is missing and realises that she must tell the police about something she has seen while on the train the day before Jess/Megan mysteriously disappeared. This is the start of the gripping sessions when Rachel can’t remember things (because she is too drunk and gets into ‘accidents); we find out the connection between Megan and Anna; and Rachel’s relationships with the two male characters – her ex-husband Tom and Megan’s husband Jason/Scott.

I won’t give too much of the story away as you may want to read it – which I recommend you should! So yes I enjoyed this book as it’s been a while since I’ve read anything this ‘exciting’. But alas I figured it ALL OUT halfway through the story. Gripping but predictable at the same time…