A very cleverly plotted psychological thriller which starts fairly gently, and becomes unputdownable by about half way through. Excellent writing, making the four main characters not particularly likeable, but still interesting enough that I wanted to know what happened.

The narrator is a man in his forties called Jamie, and the book starts when his friend Kit is reported as missing. We then learn the background of their friendship over the past year, interspersed with events moving forwards, with unexpected twists and turns, coming thick and fast towards the end of the book.

Definitely recommended if you like this kind of novel. There's nothing scary about the book, but a great deal of tension as events unfold. It's thought-provoking, too.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-other-passenger-by-louise-candl... ( )

It's necessary to pay attention when reading this because there are so many twists in the plot! Although that's hardly a problem because this gripping novel was hard to put down. Mine was an audiobook with a fabulous reading by Steven Macintosh. I'll be on the lookout for other books by Candlish. ( )

There is an air of innocence in friendship offered by Clare Armstrong to Melia Quinn, a younger woman that had started working at the same estate agency. Clare invited Melia and her boyfriend Kit Roper to have dinner at her home. The home Clare has shared with Jamie Buckby for about 10 years. The proposal for Jamie and Kit to use the river bus rather than other public transportation was irresistible. It hadn't taken long for the joy of commuter friends to extend beyond Jamie and Kit, including Steve Callister and Gretchen Miles. But that was mid-January 2019, and the tale told by Jamie begins on November 29, 2019. The year has been filled with infidelity as Jamie also found Melia irresistible.

With the introduction to the author's writing by reading "Our House," I knew this was not a simplistic tale. However, as the pace slowed, I didn't realize I had become tangled in the web the author was spinning. Bam! Fireworks began exploding with the release of the artfully woven themes of money, power, lies, and secrets. All along, the author skillfully used each character to add twists and curves efficiently and then effectively revealed each one. Masterful dark noir writing! ( )

If you want to spend hours hearing about a 50 year old man's affair with girl 20 years his junior (and I'm not talking about the exciting parts), then by all means, The Other passenger is for you. If you're looking for something remotely interesting, keep searching.

I finished because I had hope that it would turn into something more and redeem itself, but the plot never fully developed. Twists and turns for the sake of shock don't make for a good plot.

The characters in The Other Passenger are written to be unlikeable. This is the kind of story where I found myself actively rooting against all of the main players. Unfortunately, they weren't just unlikeable, they were actually a bit annoying at times.

The end felt stretched further than necessary, with no real point for doing so except adding additional pages of an already tiresome read. ( )

There are lots of twists in the plot of this suspense thriller, but it moved so slowly for the first half that I just couldn't get into it. Once the story gained some momentum, I liked it a lot better, and I really enjoyed the ending. ( )