January 2015

I have been “on board the praise train” for THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins since I first started reading it. I clearly remember picking it up late one Thursday night, getting about 10 pages in and forcing myself to stop. I knew that if I kept reading, there was no way I was going to be able to put it down, and I had a huge day of my “Friday writing” scheduled for the next day. But as SOON as I typed the last word that Friday, I dashed for it to start reading and did not stop until I was done. (I now understand what a child feels like being told to stop playing a video game to do homework!)

Here’s how I have been pitching it: Rachel takes the train to London each day, and it often stops on the tracks at the same location to wait for train traffic ahead to clear. From there, she watches a group of houses and the action happening in them. She particularly is intrigued by a young couple in one of the houses who she calls “Jess” and “Jason.” One day, she learns that "Jess" has gone missing and immediately gets caught up in what happened to this woman, who she finds out is actually named Megan. But is Rachel a reliable narrator of this story? You must read to decide. I raced through it thinking Hitchcock would have loved this.

Those who have the same commute or travel patterns each day can relate to those “slices of life” that we see but do not know. What are you really seeing? Is it the whole story?

For many good editorial reasons, not just hype, this book is being compared to GONE GIRL. Confession here: I was not the biggest GONE GIRL fan. Once the reveal happened, I felt the story slowed considerably and I was uninterested. That never happened with THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN. It was a book that had an “and then” and “then” and “then.” I also loved THE SILENT WIFE, which showed me some of the same strains of continuously pulling me along.

And on the “up all night” theme, after I finished it, I handed it to my husband; when he looked up again, he was on page 175! It’s definitely a book you want to clear your schedule to read. Especially since a lot of people will be talking about it. Care to think now about how to cast the movie?