|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
If you have ever wondered about what you would need to do to disappear from your life, THE PASSENGER might prove to be an intriguing read. In fact, even if you haven’t shared those dark thoughts, you would probably find this to be a compelling read, with its numerous twists, moral ambiguities, fascinatingly flawed characters, family secrets, and a whopper of a surprise at the end.
The book is told in the first person from our heroine’s point of view and opens with her finding her husband, Frank, dead at the bottom of the stairs. Did he fall? Was he pushed? Was it an accident or was it murder? The new widow makes what at first seems to be an inexplicable decision: to run. After all, she had nothing to do with how Frank died. Why was she so afraid? We start getting a hint that Tanya Dubois may have a more complicated backstory; we soon learn that her identify as Tanya Dubois is fake. In fact, we will be referring to her as The Heroine throughout this review because she changes identities like other women change underwear. There is clearly some dark event in her past; you have to read the entire book to find out what she is running away from – I won’t give it away here.
Lisa Lutz employs a terse writing style that you might find in a hardboiled detective novel to keep the action going and the tension high. She also intersperses a series of email messages between The Heroine and a person who is clearly a past love interest, an effective technique to provide the reader with some clues about The Heroine’s past.
The thriller features a number of carefully drawn characters. Blue, a woman who seems to befriend The Heroine, is a woman who has secrets of her own, with her own somewhat warped system of morality. The reader will be guessing whether she is a friend or foe right to the end. Then there is Domenic, a guy The Heroine meets in a bar and is drawn to, only to find out to her dismay that he is a sheriff. Their interactions I found some of the weakest parts of the novel as it was difficult for me to believe The Heroine would have been attracted to a guy who was as patronizing as Domenic.
The book is also littered with dead bodies, all of whom (except for the possible exception of husband Frank) seem to aptly deserve their fate. For me, one of the thought-provoking questions the book raised was, is it ever justifiable for an individual to decide unilaterally to take someone else’s life – even if that person is a complete slime ball? The author also seemed to be asking several additional questions – after the first time you have killed someone, does it become easier to commit murder the second time? Easier still the third time? How does the act of committing murder change a character and a reader’s sympathy toward her?
All in all, I found myself thinking about the moral dilemmas presented in this book for a long time after I finished it. I did find myself getting a little confused among all of The Heroine’s various identities. There were also a number of plotlines that weren’t wrapped up by the end of the book. Even with these flaws, I would recommend this book.
§ Phyllis Onstad has been a writer, editor, civil servant, teacher and voracious reader. She currently lives in the California wine country.
Reviewed by Phyllis Onstad, February 2016
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
