Paula Watkins: The Girl on the Train

Excellent, gripping and very well-plotted thriller with multi-narrator viewpoints so that the mystery is maintained right up until the final chapters - and a very surprising but satisfying solution it is too.

Not sure that the voices of the different narrators were really strongly enough differentiated though but for the main one, Rachel, this was less problematic. She has the majority of the narration and the impact of alcoholism on someone’s life was very powerfully shown - an unusual feature of a book of this genre where mystery and relationships are usually the sole focus. Here however, this issue was central to the story and gave a finely rounded view of the character.

The film would be interesting to see, not least for seeing how the book has been changed and the multi-narrative technique is used cinematically - if at all.