What’s up next? The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Lots of you have already read this popular thriller and I’m excited to start The Girl on the Train, so I can jump in on the conversations I see on review blogs and in other media. Amazon readers have posted over 40,000 reviews and Goodreads has over 495,000 ratings! If you’re like me and haven’t read it yet, here’s some background on the story and the author.

What it’s about (from Amazon’s description):

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

 

photo: bookfans.net

Here are some interesting facts about Paula Hawkins:

• Hawkins was born and raised in Zimbabwe and moved to London with her parents when she was seventeen.
• She studied economics, politics and philosophy at Oxford.
• Hawkins used to be a business reporter for The Times of London and during that time wrote a financial advice book called The Money Goddess.
• Although The Girl on the Train is her first book in the suspense/thriller genre, Hawkins wrote a romantic comedy about a woman who loses her job during the recession. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista was written under the pen name Amy Silver. Hawkins wrote three more novels under Amy Silver’s name, but these books had limited success.
• Financial pressures prompted Hawkins to send her unfinished manuscript to publishers, hoping one of them would like her story. They did!
• Hawkins is currently working on a new book, a psychological thriller about sisters.

Visit these sites for more information about Paula Hawkins and The Girl on the Train.

paulahawkinsbooks.com
Paula Hawkins Author Page on Amazon
“Welcoming the Dark Twist in Her Career” by Alexander Alter, Jan. 30, 2015, from The New York Times
Wikipedia article about Paula Hawkins

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