Lisa Lutz’s The Passenger will keep you guessing, stinging the storyline along, ensuring that you, the reader, only knows what is happening in the absolute present.
But the story started in the past, and Lutz ensures that throughout this novel you have one eye on the present and one on the past as she drip-feeds you information.
But one thing you can be promised is that every guess you make about what happened, about what got your mysterious, un-named character to where she currently is, is going to be wrong.
This is just another nod to Lutz’s talented writing style, although every past incident she feeds you is true, it’s cut out of context to ensure that you make the wrong guesses. This results in every chapter revealing a new surprise, and the conclusion leaving you exhilarated.
We open with our main character, initially named Tanya, sitting with the still-warm body of her now dead husband. Her only option is to run, she didn’t do it, but if anyone looks at her too closely they’ll find she doesn’t exist. And who’s going to take Tanya’s word for anything after they learn that?
Desperate to keep her past buried she adopts and sheds identities as she runs. Along the way she meets a cop with unknown motives and a troubled woman who sees right through her disguise.
In the end though Tanya is always alone, and her past is catching up with her.
It’s easy to presume that a character on the run, constantly changing their appearance, name and traits will get painfully repetitive, but not The Passenger.
Lutz not only keeps us on our toes, but further has created characters with great depth, and a novel that moves at a gloriously fast pace. This not only makes it impossible to put down, and impossibly addictive, but further ensures that the extremely clever, sharp and intense novel never drags.
Although this storyline is incredibly dark, and packed full of crime, psychological thriller style, it does ultimately have a happy ending and tell the tale of an intelligent young woman who’s been dealt a very bad hand.
This novel should not be missed, offering an incredible storyline and stunning adventure.
We Give The Passenger Five Stars
ISBN – 978-1785-651-731 Cover price - £7.99
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