I had not read anything by Louise Candlish, but the premise of The Other Passenger was intriguing: an unreliable narrator is suddenly trying to prove his innocence. There really weren’t likable people anywhere in this book, to my view, but they were interesting.

Jamie is the primary character, and we learn that he and his partner Clare live in a location that requires a significant commute into London.Jamie has begun taking the ferry to work after he suffers a panic attack in a crowded train car — in a tunnel. As a claustrophobe, I can relate. I nearly went bonkers when the BART train in which I was a passenger,  riding from Berkeley to downtown San Francisco, stopped. For no reason. In THE MIDDLE OF A TUNNEL. UNDER SAN FRANCISCO BAY. Anyway, Jamie and Clare befriend charismatic younger neighbors Kit and Melia, Clare’s family is well off and subsidizes the large impressive home where Jamie and Clare live. Shortly after the two couples begin socializing, Melia comes on to Jamie and before long, they are in a hot and heavy affair. 

Jamie and Kit are regular commuting buddies, part of a a group that knows each other fairly well. One evening, Jamie and Kit are seen arguing on the ferry ride home, an episode noted by the police when they begin to investigate Kit’s disappearance, reported by Melia. As the story unfolds, jumping back and forth in time from the beginning of Jamie and Melia’s affair to the day Kit vanishes, we learn details about the characters that make them even less likable than they were previously… 

But the story is well written, and the characters’ revelations about themselves and their actions unspool with terrific tension. Never one to figure out a mystery plot before the big reveal, I did have a hint about this one, but it didn’t lessen my sense of WTAF? as the details emerged. I liked it way more than I expected to, and I look forward to reading more by Ms. Candlish. Four stars.