The Passenger - Review

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
Publication date: March 1st 2016 by Simon & Schuster
320 pages; Hardcover
Genre: Suspense/Thriller/Mystery
Source: Publisher via NetGalley for an honest review

Description from Goodreads:

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Spellman Files series, Lisa Lutz’s latest blistering thriller is about a woman who creates and sheds new identities as she crisscrosses the country to escape her past: you’ll want to buckle up for the ride!

In case you were wondering, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s death. I don’t have an alibi, so you’ll have to take my word for it...

Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time.

She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.

It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?

With heart-stopping escapes and devious deceptions, The Passenger is an amazing psychological thriller about defining yourself while you pursue your path to survival. One thing is certain: the ride will leave you breathless.

My Take:

It was the description for The Passenger that made me request this galley.  It sounded like one of those super fast-paced thrillers that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat until the end of the book --- and it turned out to be exactly that. And more.

I loved the uncertainty of who Tanya is - or was - throughout the novel. It appears that  she has changed identities more than once -- she is too good at this to be new to it. The strain of living new lives is wearing on Tanya though. When her husband dies and she has no alibi, she knows she has to run - because of the mysterious secret from her past. This mysterious secret is slowly revealed over the course of the novel -- and I loved every painstaking moment of the reveal.

I really enjoyed the tantalizing hints given as the novel progresses. Just enough for the reader to makes guesses then change their mind a few times as to exactly what happened in Tanya's past that sent her on the run. I was completely caught up in the story from the first.

No one in The Passenger is quite what they seem or pretend to be. Everyone is a potential threat and Tanya can never forget that. I was on edge the entire time I was reading and loved every minute of it. I think that The Passenger will appeal to any reader that enjoys fast-paced, riveting novels of mystery and suspense. This is definitely a book that I will be recommending.