Lisa Lutz is a favorite author of mine, and has been ever since I laid my hands on the first Spellman Files book. She writes with a sense of humor that is difficult to match, and somehow doesn't detract from the sheer excitement of the mystery as it unfolds within each of her books. It was no surprise to me that I adored The Passenger. The only surprise for me about it was that I didn't finish it last night when I only had thirty some pages left to read.

Tanya Dubois is not responsible for the death of her husband, Frank. Unfortunately, she was also the only witness to that final tumble he took down the stairs, and she had no alibi for it. There was also the small problem of her living under an assumed identity due to the outstanding arrest warrant... So, she runs. What that previous crime she was accused of was is something we learn over the course of the book, and the various identities she takes throughout it.

This book is fast-paced, and replete with the traditional wry Lutz humor. There are downright harrowing scenes, and so many obstacles for our protagonist to overcome that at times I felt certain she wouldn't make it. The cast of side characters is naturally great, and oddly believable to me. Anything noir has a tendency to get into the exaggerated territory... Lutz seems to reign herself in, in my estimation.

This is a book I'd happily recommend to any and all. Now to just catch up on the other titles of hers that I've missed...Lisa Lutz is a favorite author of mine, and has been ever since I laid my hands on the first Spellman Files book. She writes with a sense of humor that is difficult to match, and somehow doesn't detract from the sheer excitement of the mystery as it unfolds within each of her books. It was no surprise to me that I adored The Passenger. The only surprise for me about it was that I didn't finish it last night when I only had thirty some pages left to read.

Tanya Dubois is not responsible for the death of her husband, Frank. Unfortunately, she was also the only witness to that final tumble he took down the stairs, and she had no alibi for it. There was also the small problem of her living under an assumed identity due to the outstanding arrest warrant... So, she runs. What that previous crime she was accused of was is something we learn over the course of the book, and the various identities she takes throughout it.

This book is fast-paced, and replete with the traditional wry Lutz humor. There are downright harrowing scenes, and so many obstacles for our protagonist to overcome that at times I felt certain she wouldn't make it. The cast of side characters is naturally great, and oddly believable to me. Anything noir has a tendency to get into the exaggerated territory... Lutz seems to reign herself in, in my estimation.

This is a book I'd happily recommend to any and all. Now to just catch up on the other titles of hers that I've missed...

Thank you to NetGalley and titan books for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
This is a thriller that will move fast and keep you thinking about it. I found myself to keep going back and read to finish it and when I got to the ending, I was satisfied with the ending. It was a story that lends itself to a good thriller going on the run after a death/murder. There were twists and red herrings throwing you more into the story.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Running from current events AND past events, can she trust anyone? The twists and turns at the end are well worth the wait because secrets never stay secret.

I went into The Passenger expecting the trademark wit that I found in The Spellman Files books. I found none. I don't understand what happened, but this book with its intriguing description was flat and meandering.

This was an enjoyable, but disjointed, read. The characters were great, but there were an awful lot of events that happened as the main character went around the country as a fugitive. Some were good, others just a little far-fetched. But all in all it was a fast and fun read.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately I could not get into it. I do not think this was the one for me. The premise was super interesting, but towards the end to me it just fell apart.

It took me a little while to warm up to this book, but once the main character got out on her own, the pace really picked up. I would definitely recommend this book to suspense readers; especially those who liked The Last Mrs. Parrish or Gone Girl.

I received an ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my opinion.

Tanya finds her husband dead at the bottom of the stairs. She had nothing to do with it, but she doesn’t want the police asking questions, so she goes on the run. She acquires a new identity and ends up in Austin, Texas. There she meets a bartender named Blue who also seems to be another woman hiding from her past. They work together for awhile, but circumstances cause them to both acquire new identities and head out on the run again. Our protagonist repeatedly finds herself in desperate situations and shedding identities, but ultimately may have to face her past in order to find any sort of settled life.

This book was thrilling and fast-paced. Watching Tanya/Amelia/Debra/etc flit from one life and name to another was pretty interesting and sometimes impressive. I wouldn’t have the street smarts to do any of the stuff she did, and she often pulled it off, for awhile anyway. There was some strong profanity sprinkled throughout.

Here was my issue with the book: all the blurbs talked about “if you like strong woman protagonists, this is the book for you!” Girl power, all that, sure, I enjoy that. I didn’t find Tanya or Blue strong women; to me, they were hard, cold, calculating women. Blue especially seemed to have no feelings and NO conscience. With Tanya, i started to get the sense that there was more to her life on the run than met the eye, and the more you lean about her backstory, the more you realize that’s true. You feel sorry for her by the end because most of this was not by choice. Even so, it took awhile for me to find that sympathy for her. And once she met Blue, her moral compass started taking a dive. But Blue, even if she also had an equally compelling backstory (we never find out), she seemed to have lost all sense of morals long ago. She ends up doing right by the protagonist in the end, but that’s about all that’s redeeming about her. I would have been happy with a feminist, strong leading female character-type thriller, but thus to me just showed what happens to women when they turn to the world and how the world thinks “tough” women should behave.

Thrilling story that was definitely hard to put down, but disappointing narrative and commentary on women. Probably a 2 1/2.

This is an intriguing tale of a young woman on the run - we are not told exactly what she is running from, but that is released, to us, over the course of the book.
It is a novel, not a real story, so sometimes you just have to suspend disbelief and go with the story. It certainly does not glamorise being on the run, so that is good.
The ending was something I saw coming, but it rounded the book off well.

I am reading everything I can find by this author now. The book was well paced and I enjoyed the protagonist very much. Will be looking forward to more.

This book had a lot of twists in it. There are things I couldn't understand and things that I would have handled differently. At first I thought she was crazy for running after Frank died, it just didn't make any sense. But as we were given bits and pieces I realized it wasn't from the implications of Frank's death but had everything to do with her past.

We were not told her past from the beginning and we never get Blue's full, real story either. Tanya-Amelia-Debra and a few other aliases. No matter who she is her past seems to always catch up to her or something else does.

It wasn't a bad story and it kept me engaged and flipping through the pages, racing to see what would happen next. But after a while I got tired of it and when it all came to light in the end I was thrown for a loop and I still don't know how I feel about that.

It was a good read though and I do love a good suspense book.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for the ARC they provided me in October 2015 and I apologise for not having given feedback back then. Unfortunately I was taken ill before its publication and had a long recovery. I have since bought my own copy, which I have reviewed for Amazon and Goodreads today.

A total page-turner that kept me wondering all day as to how things would turn out. I closed it feeling very satisfied.

The novel highlights how difficult it is to be ‘on the run’ and how limiting in terms of how someone can survive. There were also many questions about the narrator and her life before the opening events that kept me totally engaged. Lisa Lutz exhibits her skills in storytelling and character development and I am now keen to read other of her books.

Overall, ticked all my boxes for a psychological thriller.

WOW! Let me just say that I didn't see that coming! No spoilers here because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. This was a really good page-turner.

This was the first Lisa Lutz book I have read and I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. While it was not a book that kept me on the edge of my seat, I did want to finish it, and whilst not reading, I found myself wondering how the story was going to progress. I will read books from this author agian.

For some reason, about which I have no idea as I was really excited about this book(!), I wasn't able to get into it from the start itself.

You know those books that when you sit down to write your review, or thoughts on the book, you just don’t really have a whole lot to say? This is one of those books for me. While I did enjoy reading The Passenger, it didn’t really leave a lasting impression on me either. I have conflicted feelings about this book. On one hand The Passenger held my attention throughout the book, but on the other I also wanted a little more from it.

Our main character, let’s refer to her as “Tanya,” was a big struggle for me throughout the book. She lacked any type of personality, which made it hard to connect with her. I wondered if this was intentional on the author’s part to play into the whole “woman on the run” portion of the book where our main character had to shift her identity often… Regardless, her lack of emotion made it hard for me to root for her or to care about her outcome. I don’t necessarily need to like a character, but I do need to understand the character & see the reasoning behind their actions. I really think if we had been given flashbacks to her previous life throughout the novel (instead of all at the end) this would have helped me sympathize with her.

The “life on the run” portions of the plot – changing identities, living out of hotels, relocating multiple times, always looking over her shoulder, etc. – was my favorite aspect of the book. I actually felt like the majority of these parts of the book were very believable, which I appreciated. There is nothing worse than reading a thriller book where you side eye the plausibility of the character’s actions.

Speaking of plausibility, not every aspect in The Passenger was exactly believable. While I liked the inclusion of Blue’s character, aspects about her & her part in the story were a tad farfetched. The big plot twist at the end didn’t really sit right with me. While I didn’t see it coming at all, it didn’t exactly shock me either… This particular twist could have worked IF we had been given more back story into Tanya’s life. In all honesty it felt like it was thrown in for the shock factor, but wasn’t set up correctly.

Despite my grievances, this book was definitely a page-turner. I just had to know what was going to happen to Tanya, or where she was going to end up next. So while I did enjoy this book while I was reading it, it didn’t exactly “pack a punch” or make itself stand out in my mind from other thriller books I’ve read either.

*Big thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"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."

New Lisa Lutz book, aka one of the must reads of the year! So go read it. Now.

My favorite way to read a book is to go into it with no expectations. I got this book a while ago; I know I read the description at the time and it sounded interesting, but between then and when I started reading, I'd forgotten the summary. Perfect!

The book starts out with the accidental death of Tanya Dubois' husband. Her initial idea is to hide the body, but she goes on the run instead, getting a new identity to live under. She gets in her car and just drives, until she finds herself in Austin, Texas, where she meets Blue, a bartender who also wants to change her own identity. I don't want to spoil too much of the plot, but I'll just say that the action really picks up in the book after she meets Blue. She starts changing identities like clothes and traveling across the country, looking for places to settle down for a while. A little ways in, I realized she was running from more than just her dead husband, but I just didn't know WHAT she was running from.

All throughout the first half of the book, it felt as though the book had a secret. I could tell that it was winding up to something, and it did not disappoint. There were little clues here and there that hinted at a much bigger backstory than I'd originally imagined. "Suspense" is definitely the way I would categorize this book; it gives you plenty of plot hooks to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. I would definitely recommend this book, and it's one that I'll probably end up reading again!

Much thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a review copy of this book.

This is another book where I had to keep asking myself ‘What would I have done?’ Not necessarily at the first call when we meet Tanya who is fleeing from her home where her husband is lying dead on the floor, but later as she continues to make decisions. What is going on? Once you know, you can put the rest into perspective and make up your own mind. Read on…

A good read- but easily forgotten- it didnt stand out