Late, as ever, to the party

I know everyone read this last year or so, but I’m always behind on these things. Other books I haven’t read yet: The Kite Runner, All the Light We Cannot See, and Life of Pi. But, as usual, there was a Kindle deal on this book, and since I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery, I picked it up.

The story alternates between several narrators: Rachel, the actual girl on the train; Anna, Rachel’s replacement in her husband’s life; and Megan, our eventual victim. Rachel is a mess. She’s a drunk, early 30s, unemployed divorcee. Most of that (except the early 30s part) is attributable (at least in Rachel’s mind) to the drunkenness. Her husband kicked her out (once he met Anna), and she’s now renting a room from a college friend and riding the train into town for her nonexistent job. The train goes past the back of her old house, so she gets to see the changes that are being made without her. Several doors down, there is a young couple Rachel sees, and she makes up a whole life for them. She calls them Jess (her) and Jason (him). They’re really Megan and Scott, and they may not be as perfect as Rachel thinks. For one thing, Megan may be having an affair, which horribly offends Rachel, considering that’s at least part of how her marriage ended.

Megan goes missing, and Rachel begins to insinuate herself into the investigation because she feels that she may be able to help. She may actually have useful information, having been nearby on the night Megan went missing, but she was so drunk, she can’t remember anything about that night. She goes to the police with what she has, but is somewhat discounted because she’s an “unreliable witness.” She also is in contact with Scott, and is semi-stalking her ex-husband and his new family.

There is a lot to figure out in this story, and I freely admit that I made a few wrong assumptions about some of the characters. But gradually, through the stories of each of the three (unreliable in her own way) narrators, the mystery of what happened to Megan and why comes together.

I blew through this pretty quickly, because the story was compelling. I had to know what was going to happen to Rachel – whether she was going to get herself together long enough to be useful to anyone, especially herself. And I was disappointed when it ended, even though everything was pretty much wrapped up. Definitely looking forward to Hawkins’ next book.