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Marianne (Australia) (2020/07/31):
5 stars
The Other Passenger is the fourteenth novel by British author, Louise Candlish. On the morning of the first business day after Christmas 2019, as he departs the Thames river bus at Waterloo, Jamie Buckby is detained by two Metropolitan Police constables. His close acquaintance and regular fellow passenger, Kit Roper has been reported missing, last seen as he and Jamie disembarked late on the previous Monday night. James and his partner, Clare Armstrong met Kit soon after his then girlfriend, Melia Quinn started work at Hayter Armstrong Real Estate in January. While Melia was a beautiful and charismatic young woman, Kit was the epitome of the entitled Millennial, with a massive chip on his shoulder regarding inherited wealth. Clare’s ownership of their luxurious St Martin’s mansion became a target, yet the couples socialised quite happily despite their age disparity. But now Jamie was being explain his relationship with Kit and Melia Roper: “You’re the one who was there on Monday night. You’re the one with the history of emotional outbursts. You’re the one Kit trusted to be a witness at his wedding, even though you were in fact betraying him in the worst possible way … You’re his only known enemy, Jamie.” Jamie finds it unsettling, but isn’t overly worried: he hasn’t done anything wrong… For the first half of the book, the narrative alternates between Jamie’s informal interrogation by the constables, and the events that began at the start of the year and culminated in the last known sighting of Kit Roper. It’s a slow build but the action ramps up in the latter half, which covers an aftermath that features a number of deliciously dark twists, only a few of which are predictable. This is not a story filled with endearing characters: f there is even one vaguely likeable character in this story, it certainly isn’t the (likely unreliable) narrator, whose male arrogance negates the adage that ought never to be forgotten: “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” What will appeal, especially to anyone slightly familiar with it, are the many mentions of that area of London and the Thames. When Candlish has Jamie musing “2020 has a sci-fi ring to it, I feel, like it might be the year of alien landings or the one when the world folds in on itself and crushes us all to death” a reader might wonder if this particularly prescient sentence was composed before the coronavirus pandemic began; heads will nod in agreement. Ultimately, this one is clever and rather good!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia
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