The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 323 pages

The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller—my absolute favorite kind of book—told from the perspective of three different women none of them very likeable. But I expect if my husband left me and married a younger, fertile woman and put her in the home that I loved while I had to live with a friend who really didn’t want me there and every day twice a day on my way to and from work I had to see and be reminded, I would probably drink myself to distraction as well. And probably eat myself there too. So it’s not that difficult to understand why Rachel lives in a bit of a fantasy world and why she creates a fantasy life for a young couple who live a few doors down from her old house. And then one day, as the train rushes past she sees something quite unexpected and startling enough to bring her out of her alcoholic fugue to investigate. 

The Girl on the Train starts slow and passes back and forth between three narrators that seem unconnected at first. But what a great read it was. Beautifully written, with real, wounded characters you can feel for even as you’re screaming at them to get it together.  A true can’t-put-it-down kind of book.

Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty 369 pages

Louise’s nine year old daughter is killed by a hit and run driver and when he’s let off with a small fine and points on his license, Louise decides to hunt him down and exact revenge. She will take away what he loves most. At the time of the accident Louise was separated from her husband David who had abandoned his family for another woman.

Most of Whatever You Love focuses on Louise’s relationship with David—how they met, where it all went wrong and the other woman. We are fully three quarters of the way through before we get to the hit and run driver where the author devotes a small and unsatisfying portion to his story and then we are back to David who is apparently the love of her life.

I read this book because I was absolutely hooked by Apple Tree Road. Had I read this book first I might have had a different reaction. But as it was I felt let down. Even so I would still recommend this book. There is no denying that this author has serious skills as a writer. 

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty 317 pages

Louise is a perfectly ordinary, bright and capable, middle-aged wife and mother who begins an affair with a complete stranger an affair that takes her to the heights of passion and leaves her and her lover in a courtroom on trial for murder.

Apple Tree Yard is a psychological exploration of the dark side of passion and the consequences of burying your head in the sand when rationalizing the choices you make. And even if you don’t like Louise or think her actions are pure madness, the author’s excellent writing skills and the effort she takes in setting up the story allows you to suspend belief long enough to envision the kind of thought processes necessary to act as Louise did.

I can’t say enough about this book. It was everything I look for in a book and more.

The House on the Cliff by Charlotte Williams 338 pages

The House on the Cliff is a perfect example of the characters getting in the way of a good story. Jessica Mayhew is a practicing therapist with a cheating husband, a wayward teenage daughter, and with  a new  young client who is causing her to experience some very inappropriate thoughts. And if that’s not enough there’s also a spooky house on a cliff, a young woman who falls to her death, a famous, womanizing possible suspect, his son who experiences nightmares that put him in a depressive, perhaps suicidal state, and a long suffering wife and mother who has her own set of problems. Add to this mix, the therapist Maggie who spills info from her clients confidential sessions to both her husband and best friend, who involves herself in her clients business (the one she has inappropriate thoughts for) including flying off to Sweden on a whim to interview the victim’s mother—again over something that is none of her business, who allows her teenage daughter outrageous freedoms for no reason other than, well, who knows, and makes one sentence disclaimers like I probably shouldn’t have done that or perhaps my husband’s one night stand hit me worst that I thought as if that made all her ridiculous choices okay.

An excerpt from the book: This comes after the mother (sharp therapist) who followed her sixteen year old daughter after she told her she was going to a friend’s house but was seen with a man instead. A man who turned out to be a previous client who was fired from his job as a teacher for inappropriately touching a young female student.

Daughter: You can stop spying on me.

Mother: I’m not spying on you.

Daughter: Calm down. She spoke as if reassuring a lunatic. “Don’t call me again.”

Mother: OK. But whose house is it?

Daughter: It’s Emyr’s house. (Emyr being the previous client)

When the therapist asks her daughter when she will be back the daughter tells her she’ll keep her informed and then hangs up on her.

Really??????

Just out of curiosity. Do the people who contribute to the blurbs on the back of books actually read the books? Don’t think I’ll waste my time with the second in the series. When it comes out that is. 

The Affair by Colette Freedman 322 pages

The Affair is narrated from three perspectives: Kathy, her husband of eighteen years Robert, and Robert’s mistress Stephanie. The author takes a series of events that occur over a period of several days and each character gets to tell their side of things. A clever premise to be sure. The problem was in how Freedman chose to do this. She repeats verbatim the entire dialog in each of the three narratives. On the one hand it allowed the different perspectives to be clearly seen and felt. On the other, it was tedious as hell to keep reading the same thing over and over and over again. And I’m sure that somewhere in the universe a wife and her husband’s mistress might well meet and handle a confrontation in much the same way as Kathy and Stephanie did. I’m equally sure I wouldn’t. Not that that's a good thing. Still it was well written, the characters are easy to like or despise—depending on the perspective you happen to be reading and the subject matter is juicy enough to keep you interested. I will read the next installment simply because I want to know how it all ends up.