Debbie Babitt follows up SAVING GRACE and FIRST VICTIM with another engaging psychological thriller. At the start of THE MAN ON THE TRAIN, a body is being pulled from the ocean. This individual played an instrumental role in a horrendous crime that took place on eastern Long Island in 1984.

In present day, we meet Guy Haley, a middle-aged copywriter and would-be serious novelist who makes the commute from Westchester to Manhattan every day via Metro-North Railroad. One day, while riding on the train, he finds himself sitting next to a much younger, extremely attractive woman who is reading Dostoyevsky. Being a huge fan of classic literature, Guy cannot help but comment. He has felt somewhat neglected and a bit unnecessary at home; his wife, Linda, earns the major keep of their household income as Manhattan Assistant District Attorney.

"Nothing is what it appears to be in THE MAN ON THE TRAIN thanks to Debbie Babitt’s skillful handling of this twisty plot. With unsolved mysteries occurring in multiple timelines, it keeps the reader off-guard..."

Guy starts to obsess over seeing Anna on his commute, which eventually leads to rides home from the train station after stopping at bars to talk literature. One night, she begins acting differently and confesses that there is trouble at home with her abusive boyfriend, whom she has just left. Anna takes a temporary room at a run-down hotel in midtown, and Guy meets up with her at a nearby bar to show that he is there for her. They go back to her new abode, and the trip down the rabbit hole that Guy ends up taking will change his life forever.

The police show up at Linda’s door on that same ill-fated night, and they report that Guy is wanted for the murder of a man who was killed in a hotel room. He is nowhere to be found, and they were hoping she might know where he went. With the assistance of her colleague, Pete, Linda begins looking into his disappearance.

This investigation quickly ties to events in the summer of 1984, when Guy’s parents took the then-teenager to the beach community of Manatawkett. There, he met his eternal love, Dorothy Miller, who was slightly older than him. The summer will end in tragedy, with Dorothy allegedly raped inside the old lighthouse. This is the same spot where another teen, Alfred Johnson, was thrown to his death into the raging waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Linda is horrified to learn that Guy and two other teens were suspected of raping Dorothy. Guy and his family had to leave in shame, especially following Alfred’s death. Linda and Pete must try to connect the murder in NYC to what went down 40 years ago. This will force Linda to face the unthinkable prospect that her husband might be a rapist and a murderer. Beyond that, she still needs to find Guy for herself, dead or alive, to close the door on this surreal situation forever.

Nothing is what it appears to be in THE MAN ON THE TRAIN thanks to Debbie Babitt’s skillful handling of this twisty plot. With unsolved mysteries occurring in multiple timelines, it keeps the reader off-guard, and you have no choice but to buckle up and ride along with Linda as she works towards the truth, even if it's not to her liking.