The Other Passenger (by Louise Candlish)

(Amazon UK link)

I have been reading novels by Louise Candlish for over a decade now. Her writing is excellent, fast-paced and her novels have tight, often very clever plots. Her later books have been in the psychological thriller category, tense and page-turning, yet without being scary. So when I saw ‘The Other Passenger’ in a church book sale for 50 cents, I had no hesitation in buying it. It took me nearly a year to pick it up to read - and just three days to finish.

Jamie is the main protagonist of the novel, which is told from his perspective, in the third person. We meet him first at the end of December 2019 when he’s about to board the water ferry that takes him to his workplace, in London. He notes that his friend Kit is not there, He mentions Kit’s tendency to get drunk, to skip work or turn up late. He describes the way they, and two other commuter friends, have become a kind of group, hanging out and drinking beers together, although he doesn’t know a whole lot about the other two. He also hints at one or two things he’d rather forget….

Then, when the ferry reaches Kit’s destination he is met by two men who flash their police IDs, and tell Jamie they need to have a chat with him, since his friend Kit has not been seen since the evening of December 23rd.  And, according to security cameras and other information, Jamie was the last person to see him…

The story then alternates with the present - moving forward, slowly - and the past year, as Jamie recounts how he and his partner Clare first met Kit and his wife Melia, and how their friendship progressed. To say anything much more about the plot would be to give spoilers - the story has so many unexpected revelations and (towards the end) twists, even U-turns, that I found it quite unputdownable.

It’s unusual for me to like a book where none of the main characters are particularly sympathetic, but somehow I did. Jamie’s accounts seem to be reasonably straightforward and honest - he recounts the story as if doing so to himself, or in a journal, although the assumption is that this is what he’s telling the police, off the record. But much of what he recounts doesn’t make pleasant reading. Jamie drinks too much, he’s suffered panic attacks, he sometimes accepts drugs, and he openly admits to a terrible betrayal of two people he cares about.

Kit and Melia are always complaining about having no money, despite their both being in good jobs. They have student debts and other loans to pay off, but they seem to spend all the money they earn on eating out, drinking and drugs. I didn’t like either of them much, either. Jamie and Clare live in a huge and gorgeous house, but we quickly learn that it’s owned by Clare, given to her by her parents. Clare has a high-powered job but Jamie had to give up his city job, and now works as a barista at a cafe. He likes his job but Clare wants him to get something else, and is a bit pushy about it.

So I didn’t much care about any of the significant people in the book - yet I kept reading, increasingly curious to know what had happened to Kit. It’s not clear whether he’s still alive, and if so whether he’s gone off with someone else, or been beaten up by his dealers for owing money, or whether he’s lying somewhere in a drunken stupor. By the time we discover Kit’s fate, there have been so many twists and turns to the story that I had almost lost sight of the fact that he has been missing.

It’s a powerful story which, essentially, is about strong women, whether they are basically benign or narcissistic. Kit and Jamie both come across as having entitlement mentalities, Kit feeling that the world owes him something, and Jamie that he can do whatever he wants, remaining dependent on Clare. They are both, in different ways, victims of circumstances, yet doing nothing to stand up to what is right.

If you want to read a hard-hitting, thought-provoking and fast-paced crime novel that’s expertly written, then I would recommend this.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews