The Girl on the Train

 The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins   336 pages

Journalist-turned-fiction writer Paula Hawkins’s debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, has been out for approximately sixteen months and has yet to be issued as a paperback. That alone indicates how good the story is. It spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was the list’s most popular book in 2015.

As with all great reads, the story lies with the characters. But Hawkins has something else going for her: the format of the story.

Rachel’s days are the same. She gets up, gets ready for work, hops on the 8:04 commuter train to London, daydreams about the couple she often sees when the train slows down. The couple happens to live two doors down from the home she once shared with her ex-husband, Tom. At the end of the day, she repeats her steps and heads back to the flat that she shares with her friend Cathy. Rachel has a secret. In addition to the she carries, Rachel has a drinking problem, which is no secret. It began long before her marriage to Tom dissolved, but exacerbated significantly.

Her favorite pastime is daydreaming about the couple, whom she calls Jason and Jess. Her world is shattered when she sees “Jess” kissing another man as her train waits to move ahead. Rachel feels that only has “Jess” been betrayed, but she, too, has been deceived.

Rachel suffers from alcohol-induced blackouts. What happened last Saturday night is particularly blank. Meanwhile “Jess,” who is really Megan is missing. It seems she has disappeared without a trace. Her husband, Scott, or better known to Rachel as “Jason,” is a prime suspect. Rachel feels that she knows something, or at the very least saw something. If only she could remember.

To discuss the plot anymore would spoil it, and The Girl on the Train is too good of a read to mess it up for other readers.

Earlier, I mentioned the story’s format. It’s told in alternating point of view from Rachel, Megan, and as the story progresses, Anna, Tom’s new wife. Each chapter, or point-of-view shift, centers on different aspects of the day---morning, afternoon, or evening.

In the first few pages, I wasn’t sure that I would be sucked in; in fact I wondered what so many people were talking about. But the more I read, the deeper involved I felt. Much to Hawkins’ great skill, every time I thought I had the plot figured out, it twisted in another direction.

I give The Girl on the Train 6 out of 5 stars.