2016 Book #20 – The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

41sHWoA+-uL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_Title: The Passenger
Author: Lisa Lutz
Date finished: 3/13/16
Genre: Fiction, thriller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March 1, 2016
Pages in book: 320
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

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 rating:  4.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about a woman who runs through many different names through the story; we first meet her right after she has discovered her husband dead at the bottom of the stairs at her house. After this we learn that she has been on the run since long before that, and because of that she didn’t want the police looking too far into her background after her husband dies, so she runs again. At this time the woman’s name is Tanya. She runs to Austin, Texas where she makes a new friend, Blue. From there “Tanya” makes a series of wrong (and a few right) turns that will lead her down a dark path, away from the person she always thought she was underneath the fake names and hair dye.
Overall I thought this was a fantastic book. “Tanya” was an extremely flawed person but the reader still comes to like her somehow. And the twists and turns in this plot were outstanding, every time I thought we were settled for awhile there was another one thrown in there. It definitely kept me on my toes and I did not want to put the book down. “Tanya” also comes across a number of people in this story, most with sinister motives, but she does meet a few truly good people that only want to help her. I thought that was interesting that with so much harshness and struggle to survive in her world that “Tanya” was able to find happiness at certain moments in her life on the run. This was a thrilling, fast-paced, riveting novel with a great story line that will keep you hooked right through to the end. Everyone should pick up a copy of this one.

The bottom line: VERY good book! I didn’t want to put it down, this is a great thriller! I would definitely recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page