Just Jennifer

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead Books, January 13, 2015)

Traveling to London on the train each day, Rachel sees a couple sitting on their terrace and imagines the perfect life for them.  The day after Rachel sees the wife kissing another man, she reads that the wife has disappeared.  Rachel, whose own life is built on secrets and lies, is desperate to contact the police and the husband to tell them about the man she saw in the garden.  Events quickly spiral out of control for Rachel and she knows there is something locked in her memory, just out of her reach, something that would uncover what really happened the night of the disappearance if she can just remember.  Rachel tries to sort events and memories in her head, attempting to distinguish between the lies and the truths, sinking ever further into a place from rich she might not be able to return.  This first novel is fast paced and gripping with a classic noir feel to it; a book not to be started when there is not enough time to rea it through to the very satisfying, unsettling conclusion.