The Girl On The Train

I'm not sure why I had to read this book. Yes, I'd heard a bit about it around the traps. A modern Hitchcockian "Rear Window" vibe. "The new Gone Girl". Well, I didn't read that one. I wasn't overly interested at the time, but then I did see the movie, and liked it up until a point. But I bought The Girl On The Train a while ago, and suddenly it seemed like a good idea. And it was.

I know that I should read more adult fiction, but seriously I don't often get the time. But I usually enjoy it when I get there. Last week it seemed imperative that I read The Girl On The Train. So I did.

Rachel is the girl on the train, making her daily commute into London. She watches the houses on the way, but her attention is always held by the street where she used to live. She knows those houses not just from the outside, but from the inside as well. And of course she knows some of the people who live in those houses, and the lives they live there.

My head leaning against the carriage window, I watch these houses roll past me like a tracking shot in a film. I see them as others do not; even their owners probably don't see them from this perspective. Twice a day, I am offered a view into other lives, just for a moment. There's something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home.

There are three narrators, all women. Rachel, Megan and Anna. All three are connected by geography, by the street, by the train line, and their lives are interconnected in ways that are slowly unfolded. I've always  liked a multiple point of view read, as long as it's well done. Here I really liked the structure of three intertwining first person voices, in a dated entries, and predominantly morning, evening entries. (Which naturally made me think of one of my favourite cheeses, Morbier- a classic French cheese made from morning and evening milk separated by a layer of ash. Traditionally made from cow's milk, I recently had an insanely good goat milk morbier. But I digress...) Each of the voices were not particularly distinctive in style, but all are clearly marked and it was always easy to tell who was speaking.

I really enjoyed The Girl On The Train. It's more suspense than gore and violence, which is more my preference these days, although I did like a good forensic procedural back in the day. I enjoy trying to work out who did what, and to who. Who is lying? And what are they trying to hide?

There is a movie version of The Girl On The Train on the way, but sadly, and rather predictably, the action is moving from London to New York. Even so, I will be interested enough to see it when it comes out.