The Other Passenger
Jamie and his partner Clare are a trendy middle-class couple who live in a lovely house in a good east-London suburb. They befriend a younger couple, Melia and Kit Roper, who aspire to a similar lifestyle but are deep in debt and chronically behind on their rent.
The Ropers envy Jamie and Clare for getting in early on the property ladder. Kit in particular envies Jamie for what seems like an unfair disparity in their financial situations. But Kit and Melia don’t realize that Jamie’s financial ease is illusory: the house is Clare’s, gifted to her by her wealthy parents. And it’s Claire’s good job in real estate that pays the couple’s way.
Jamie used to have a good-paying corporate job in north London, but he has claustrophobia and the commute by crowded Tube was too much for him. Now he works as a barista in a coffee bar near the London Eye. The commute is shorter, but still painful.
Kit works in downtown London too. On a whim, Kit and Jamie decide to start commuting to work by the Thames river bus, each buying a year’s pass on the route. This is much more comfortable, less crowded and almost luxurious. They become regular commute companions, and drinking companions too.
But then, over Christmas, Kit goes missing. Police interrogate Jamie: apparently he was the last one to see Kit before he disappeared, on their final evening return commute just before the holiday. And another passenger says Jamie and Kit got into a fight before getting off the boat that night.
Jamie is desperate to prove that he had nothing to do with Kit’s disappearance. Who is this other passenger?
The story is not nearly as straightforward as it seems at first. Flashbacks to earlier in the year reveal the unfolding relationships among these four people, with complications mounting as time goes on. The plot keeps taking on new directions, with twist after twist taking place right up to the end.
Louise Candlish was born in northern England, grew up in the Midlands, and later moved to London where she studied English at University College. She worked for some years as a book editor and advertising copywriter, publishing her first novel Prickly Heat in 2004.
Described as “queen of the sucker-punches” by thriller writer Ruth Ware, Candlish is now the acclaimed author of 15 novels. The Other Passenger was longlisted in 2021 for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and the book is reportedly in development for filming in the US.
Candlish’s best-known novel, Our House, won the British Book Awards 2019 Crime & Thriller Book of the Year and is now a 4-part ITV drama. Her newest book, The Heights, was released in North America in March 2022, and will be released in the UK in June.
She lives in South London with her husband and teenage daughter.
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