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Passenger
Passenger
Author: Lisa Lutz
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 ...  more »

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.
ISBN-13: 9781501140778
ISBN-10: 1501140779
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 6

4.1 stars, based on 6 ratings
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

officerripley avatar reviewed Passenger on + 258 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Wow! One of the best suspense thrillers I've read in a long time; couldn't put it down! Looking forward to reading more from this author. Thanks for your art, Ms. Lutz!
Readnmachine avatar reviewed Passenger on + 1474 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent twisty tale of a woman on the run, whose past is even more complicated and dangerous than her future.

Lutz sets up her heroine as an unreliable narrator almost from the get-go, when Tanya Dubois finds her husband dead at the foot of the stairs in their family home and, instead of calling the cops, proceeds to empty his wallet and as much of their bank account as she can access, and hitting the road.

As Tanya travels across the country, changing identities as needed, her backstory unravels with tantalizing hints of dark and dangerous deeds.

Lutz fudges Washington state geography a bit, which I suppose is forgivable in a work of fiction, but is nonetheless a bit disorienting to any reader who knows just how far Moses Lake is from Everett. Less forgivable is a scene that takes place in the front seat of a Lincoln Towncar, which strikes one as physically impossible. (No, it's not a sex act. Let's just say even Jackie Chan couldn't pull it off.)

Minor complaints aside, this is a great sit-up-late-to-finish-it tale.
legz avatar reviewed Passenger on + 509 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I was impressed with this book. I have read Lisa's Spellman File books which were hilarious. This is quite a change in genre for her. This twisty book kept me guessing the entire time & I liked the whole changing identity to escape the crime. Can you find a friend that would kill for you? A little abused woman vs society take in some areas.
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maura853 avatar reviewed Passenger on + 542 more book reviews
Implausibility piling upon implausibility -- and, as far as I can see, to very little purpose.

This starts with an implausibility: a woman is is so anxious to avoid interacting with the authorities, when her husband tumbles down the stairs and dies, that she contrives to make the death look suspicious, and herself like a murder suspect; she goes on the lam, acquiring and losing false identities as she goes. Having said that, I thought at first that the implausibility of the opening chapter was just intriguing enough -- why would she do that? -- to keep me reading. I was wrong.

It goes downhill very fast after that -- the protagonist's meandering from bar to diner to used car lot are as boring as they sound. Flashbacks, in the form of "mysterious" emails to someone from her past, who was involved in some unpleasantness back in her hometown, are so so pointless and repetitive that I quickly started skipping them altogether. There are a few bursts of, shall we say, decisive action, as if Lutz realizes that she'd better try to keep the reader's attention, but they make no sense at all. Not physically, not psychologically ... not practically.

For example, the protagonist -- whose work experience to date consists of bar-tending, uninspired housecleaning, and messing up a perfectly straightforward accidental death -- uses fake documents she had acquired to become a primary school teacher, at a private school in a small town in Wyoming that is so desperate to hire anyone that the headmaster ignores little things like no references and sketchy to non-existent documentation. Someone, like her publisher, really should have told Lutz that, in this day and age, no one gets through the door of a school, and anywhere near the children, without thorough police checks. I suspect that's true, even for the dodgiest of small faith-based schools in the tiniest, most remote of small-towns.

It was at that point that "intriguing" segued over into "very annoying," and I decided that I had no further time for an author who doesn't respect the intelligence of her readers ....
reviewed Passenger on + 215 more book reviews
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was reviewed by others as a fast-paced thriller and it didn't disappoint. I did find myself skimming a few spots as the main character, whose name changes are confusing enough to put some readers off, would drag on and on about her predicament. I get it, you have a hard life! But, something keep me reading to see how this sad woman would regain everything she had lost. The mystery at the end was quite fulfilling. Great twist. I honestly didn't see it coming. Also, now I really want to go on a road trip! Still beats me how in this day and age with the cameras everywhere and supposed 'monitoring' by the government how you can be hidden in plain sight. Hmmm.

Free galley given through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
alterlisa avatar reviewed Passenger on + 335 more book reviews
As a lover of thrillers, this book drew me in from the beginning. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was I found it so improbable that someone could have lived off the grid for ten years in this day and time. The main character was pretty unlikeable and I can't say I had a whole lot of sympathy for her. The story had a lot of twists and turns to keep the reader reading very late into the night to find what caused the original bolt from home.
legz avatar reviewed Passenger on + 509 more book reviews
I was impressed with this book. I have read Lisa's Spellman File books which were hilarious. This is quite a change in genre for her. This twisty book kept me guessing the entire time & I liked the whole changing identity to escape the crime. Can you find a friend that would kill for you? A little abused woman vs society take in some areas.
reviewed Passenger on + 670 more book reviews
This reads like an eight-part Thomas Perry novel (because the protagonist changes identities eight times and Perry is known for novels in which someone is trying to escape their past). There are some laugh-out-loud lines amidst the suspense. An enjoyable read.
reviewed Passenger on + 1452 more book reviews
This is an interesting read about a young woman whose life is turned upside down because of an accident in which two people were killed. Her mother's car, which someone else was driving, rammed into another vehicle which plunged into a lake drowning the occupants. She is blamed because the brothers in her mother's car say she was driving. As the community, her friends and her mother turn against her she is forced to go on the run. Her life spirals many ways as she takes on identity after identity to keep ahead of authorities.

The essence is that, first, she is a woman, and second, the brothers are the sons of a very wealthy and powerful member of the community. No one believes her. Her experiences are interesting and often hard to believe but somehow she survives until she tires of running and decides to return home and face whatever will happen to her. Well written and plotted mystery.
reviewed Passenger on + 19 more book reviews
I bought this book because I loved the author's Spellman series. This book has a completely different tone. It tells the tale of a woman on the run, and what she has to do to survive. We don't learn the full story of her past until the end of the book. This book kept me excited about what would come next.

The only disappointment was that I kept expecting the heroine and Blue to sleep together.

I found myself cheering for the main character, hoping that she would somehow be able to find peace. That makes it a very worthwhile read.


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