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Sep 06, 2020dgiard rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Rachel became fascinated by the sight of a beautiful copy that she would see from her seat on the train every morning. She fantasized about their idyllic life, so she was shocked to see the young wife kissing another man one morning and to learn the next day that this same wife had disappeared. She began investigating the disappearance and it was not long until she had injected herself into the incident and the lives of those involved. "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins is told by three different women. Rachel - An alcoholic who often drinks to the point of blacking out. She is reeling from the loss of her husband, who left her to marry his mistress. Megan - Married to an emotionally abusive husband. She loves him but cannot resist sleeping with other men. She is haunted by a dark secret in her past. Anna - The mistress who took away Rachel's husband. Her idyllic life with her new husband and baby is disrupted by Rachel's stalking. The story involves the sudden disappearance of Megan. Rachel becomes obsessed with the case. Although she never met Megan, she would see her from her train nearly every day and fantasize about the perfect marriage she witnessed. This suspenseful novel kept me interested until the end. I loved the way the author began Megan's story a year before Rachel's, so we were able to see what led to her disappearance; I loved how Hawkins often related the same scene from three different perspectives; I loved how key factors were withheld and revealed later, taking the reader in a new direction; and I loved that each of the narrators was fatally flawed and unreliable, so we were left to guess at the truth. The only weak point came near the end when the villain arrogantly and foolishly began relating their crime, reminiscent of a James Bond villain. But this can be forgiven after the rollercoaster ride that is this novel.