The Other Passenger cover art

The Other Passenger

One stranger stands between you and the perfect crime…The most addictive novel you'll read this year

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Other Passenger

By: Louise Candlish
Narrated by: Steven Mackintosh
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.64

Buy Now for £13.64

About this listen

 It all happens so quickly. One day you're living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn't turned up for the boat and his wife Melia has reported him missing.
When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends - ask Melia, she'll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your lives?

No, whatever danger followed you home last night, you are innocent, totally innocent.

Aren't you? City Life Crime Thrillers Domestic Thrillers Genre Fiction Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Urban Fiction Crime Exciting

Critic reviews

‘From Our House to Those People, Candlish knows exactly how to excavate the seething social tensions between her characters, creating delicious thrillers that are also really good fun . . . Filled with really excellent twists (one made my head hurt, but it was so good), read this and be transported down Candish’s river of dark deeds’
‘The queen of the urban thriller returns with her winning blend of whodunit and thoroughly unreliable narrators. Jamie has given up the rat-race for an easier life with a riverboat commute on the Thames in the company of his younger, brasher neighbour, Kit. But when Kit goes missing, Jamie is the prime suspect even though he had nothing to do with his friend’s disappearance. Or did he?’
'One of the twistiest plots you'll ever read. If you liked The Girl on a Train, you'll love this'
‘Oh, the delicious agony of witnessing Louise Candlish's ordinary, flawed bourgeois characters become warped by dark impulses, then twisting even further to avoid the consequences. Jamie and Clare, middle-aged and prosperous — though with fault lines — become enthralled by young new neighbours Kit and Melia. And as Jamie's telling of the story unfolds, the layers of plot astound’
‘Another clever tale from the author of Our House’
‘A chillingly addictive and glamorous thriller, set on and around London’s famous river and as murky as the Thames itself, with a disturbing denouement that would keep Christie herself guessing'
‘Addictive page turner… This author is so good at twisty yet completely believable domestic thrillers’
‘Candlish has carved a delicious niche recently – creating tales of lightly unpleasant people in sticky domestic situations – and she delivers again with this superior thriller’
‘The Other Passenger is just brilliant; gripping from the first page with an incredible first person narrative and a sense of place that pulls you through the pages fast enough to make your head spin. Louise Candlish just gets better and better, I love her’ (Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs)
‘I’m a HUGE fan of Louise Candlish’s writing but she really knocks it out of the park with this one, with its Hitchcockian atmosphere of mounting dread and almost unbearable suspense, building to its astonishing conclusion. And it’s all so frighteningly credible because the characters are so brilliantly drawn, so knowable. A must read!’ (Lucy Foley, author of The Guest List)
'Dark and clever and terrific in all its twists and turns'
(Nicci French, author of the Frieda Klein series and The Lying Room)
'A smart, twisty thriller that explores how money can warp relationships and destroy lives. A compulsive read that builds to an unimaginable climax. I couldn’t put it down!' (Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door)
All stars
Most relevant
This is an amazing story. Gripped me from the get go

The problem is you can constantly hear the narrator swallow saliva. It is very very distracting.I
I don't know if it's a problem with microphones but it really detracts

Why can I hear every saliva swallow?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have been a fan of Louise Candlish for years and I have to say her books just keep getting better and better and better - this latest one is sublime.

Great characters, fascinating insight into the housing crisis in London and what it is like to live and work in the capital, wonderful images of the Thames and commuting on the river bus ..... romance, the fragility of relationships living in a survielled society with a phobia and OH THE PLOT!

A plot of plots, so tightly wound it had you sitting back thinking where it is all going but enjoying the ride and then ... suddenly you are thrown ... and thrown again and again until you do not know what is what and feel very foolish for having thought you knew what was going on.

Love Louise Candlish's writing as there are never any annoying plot holes or niggles - nothing left that is not bolted down or squared away - really intelligent, ingenious and addictive storytelling, no cliches, no gore or revelling in gritty, dark, upsetting details of crime - no lazy and horrible shortcuts like pets being killed to signify danger lurking just right riveting, twisty thrilling and compulsive reading with the Thames positively thronging with sneaky red herrings.

Hats off - I cannot find even one small flaw in this book.it was seamless and sensational - I am so hoping we do not have to wait too long for the next as I have so adored and devoured the last four.

Even my husband was caught up in this one and asked for the low down on what the latest news on what was happening in the book every day and was disappointed if I had not got very far since the last recap and pronounced it brilliant - it is not his genre at all, so high praise indeed.

I was kind of expecting a female narrator and it took me a while to get into it, but soon I was thinking it was genius casting as Steven Mackintosh really did make his character Jamie come alive,

I just finished this last night and I will so miss my daily commutes via River Bus and my many drinks in the Hope and Anchor and The Mariner not to mention the wicked plotting, heartbreaking betrayals, devilish deeds and double dealing ..... ahhh if only every thriller could be so thrilling and superbly written!

See, I knew I could not get through a review without one small gripe!

Masterful & mesmerising-even the twists had twists

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A twisty tale exploring the sense of entitlement held by various unlikeable Londoners.
It’s a world where square footage is the measure and currency of status but is seldom earned.
Clever plotting but, despite several whopping great twists, it’s actually quite slow for the most part.
Fun read (and superb narration) but I’m not sure which character I would hate to be trapped in a confined space with least.
So glad there are some books being published/recorded again after the lockdown drought.

A Room of One’s Own

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Other reviewers have pointed out that there is not a single likeable character in this book. It’s true, but the real problem is that the characters are shallow and this is what deters the reader from engaging. To make matters worse, they have almost identical personalities. The narrator does not convince as a middle-aged man. He has the sulky delivery of an early thirties lad not a 47 year old. He also fails to differentiate adequately between characters - even those of different genders - making some dialogues very hard to follow. Overall, a bit of a muddle.

Underwhelming

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It wasn't that the narrator was bad, it was his sneering tone of voice for almost every character that annoyed me. When I realised it was Steven Mackintosh, I was amazed as he's voiced many things perfectly well, so it was his interpretation that was at fault.

The story itself dragged a bit, with only one twist of note to make me sit up. I finished it because I was hoping for another, but the end left me rather disappointed. I give it 3 stars though, because my expectation may have been a bit high as I can't help but compare all crime novels to my favourite author, Robert Goddard.

Spoilt by the narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews