The Girl on the Train

Book Review

Sheer evil perpetrated by a born criminal is not an interesting subject in literature.  But Paula Hawkins’ novel, The Girl on the Train, is not serious literature; it is serious suspense thriller.  The suspense keeps the reader hooked to the end.  The characters are eminently well portrayed too.

The story is primarily about two men and three women.  Rachel, the dominant character, is an alcoholic and divorced wife of Tom Watson who is now living with Anna, his present wife.  Scott Hipwell and his wife Megan are the other two characters.  Dr Kamal Abdic, a professional shrink, has a fairly important role too.

Megan’s disappearance and the eventual recovery of her dead body forms the crux of the suspense.  Megan was a “bored, mad, curious” woman with a past.  The boy with whom she fell in love at the age of 15 died in accident leaving a vacuum in her heart.  The next man whom she learnt to love abandoned her when their little child died due to Megan’s carelessness. 

Scott is a loving and caring husband though he has enough reasons to be suspicious of his wife.  Megan, after all, has her sexual adventures with other men though Scott is unable to discover any proof.  She is a good seducer.  Dr Abdic manages to save himself from her seductiveness.  But there are enough men in the world who will be too happy to embrace a beautiful blond woman who offers herself freely, wantonly.  She pays a heavy price for her nature.

Who is her killer?  The suspicion falls initially on Dr Abdic before it shifts to her husband Scott.  Real villains sometimes have the most suave personalities, however.  Even Rajesh Gujral, an Indian artist who exhibited his paintings in the gallery where Megan worked for a while, can be suspected. 

Rachel is the primary narrator of the novel.  She is an alcoholic whose memory cannot be relied upon.  She retains her husband’s surname even after their divorce because she genuinely loves him.  She continues to disturb Tom Watson’s new family life because of her inability to let bygone love be bygone.  Anna finds her a nuisance as well as a potential threat to her married life.  The novelist is eminently successful in portraying feminine jealousies and possessiveness. 

Megan had worked for a brief period for the Watsons as a child-minder.  Did she arouse Anna’s jealousy enough to invite murder?  Well, just anyone can be the murderer in this novel.  That’s what makes the novel an intoxicating read.

If you are looking for serious literature about evil, this book is not for you.  But if it is a gripping suspense thriller that you want, this is highly recommended.