Review: THE PASSENGER by Lisa Lutz

Publisher Titan
Length 384 pages
Format paperback
Published 2016
Series Standalone
My Copy provided by the publisher

My Review

I love books that start with a bang. From the first sentence The Passenger vice grips your attention and doesn’t let up.

"When I found my husband at the bottom of the stairs, I tried to resuscitate him before I ever considered disposing of the body." 

After the killer sentence, a mystery slowly unravels; why does Tanya run? She says she didn’t kill her husband, yet innocence is damn near forfeited when she hot foots it out of town, not only leaving behind her dead husband but her former life for she is no longer Tanya Dubois, rather someone else, and then someone different, and then someone else again...a pattern of why’s and constant change accompanied by ever-present danger ensures.

The Passenger is a fast paced thriller that, while entertaining does read a little same-same. Bouncing from town to town, finding danger and violence at nearly every turn, Tanya’s (or Amelia, or Nora, or Sonya) ever changing identity did get tiresome without cause. We eventually do find out the reason, and it’s a good one but perhaps a little more time spent in each locale rather than speeding through personalities and places would have benefited the overall flow of the story.

This is my first book by Lisa Lutz and as far as thrillers with a deep sense of mystery go, it’s pretty good. I found myself constantly making assumptions as to why Tanya was doing the things she did, even with the subtle hints peppered throughout, the reason remained elusive until the end – making this a well crafted mystery.

3/5 stars.