Publisher: Atria Books / Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: July 20, 2021
Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Atria Books / Print: ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio
Summary:
The “queen of the sucker-punch twist” (Ruth Ware, number-one New York Times best-selling author) and author of Our House weaves an unputdownable pause-resister about a commuter who becomes a suspect in his friend’s mysterious disappearance.
It all happens so quickly. One day you’re living the dream, commuting to work by ferry with your charismatic neighbor 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?
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by Louise Candlish and I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to pick up one of her books. I will definitely be going through her backlist soon!
This is such a twisted, slow-burning type of read that I love. It is full of unlikeable characters and an unreliable narrator and the fact that a lot of it is set on a commuter ferry just makes for a unique setting. I loved that every time I thought I knew where things were headed, a new twist would pop up, throwing everything off balance.
There is such a strong sense of place in this book. Because of an incident on the tube, Jamie now commutes by a commuter ferry to the coffee shop he works at. His neighbor Kit also takes the same boat to work. Because Jamie and Kit end up becoming friends, they begin to socialize as couples with their partners. But one day Kit goes missing and no one knows what happened…or do they?
I loved how the story alternates between the present day investigation into Kit’s disappearance and the past where you see how their friendship unfolded. Of course now I want to reread the book to see if I missed any clues…but isn’t that always the case? As I already stated, this isn’t a fast-paced book, but I felt it moved along at just the right pace, with the last part moving the fastest, and the twists kept me hooked. I really enjoyed this one and definitely recommend it!
Audio thoughts:
I listened to this one and enjoyed the narration – Steven Mackintosh was a new-to-me narrator and I thought he did a good job with the voices. His pacing and inflection was good and overall it was an enjoyable book to listen to.
