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Saturday, August 24, 2024
Blog Tour + Review: “The Couple on the Train” by Claire Cooper
★★★★★ A sinister, fast-paced psychological thriller, "The Couple on the Train" by Claire Cooper is so taut with suspense and pulse-pounding scenes that you'll find yourself chewing on your nails as you white-knuckle the book. About the…
A sinister, fast-paced psychological thriller, "The Couple on the Train" by Claire Cooper is so taut with suspense and pulse-pounding scenes that you'll find yourself chewing on your nails as you white-knuckle the book.
About the Book
"The Couple on the Train" by Claire Cooper
I look at where the woman was sitting. There's a scrap of paper tucked into the gap between the seats. With shaking hands, I pick it up. The note reads: Help me.
At first glance, the couple on the train look normal. She's dressed smartly, a floral-patterned bag on her lap. But her hands are clenched, her fingers white. The man with her has his arm looped through hers, but not in a comforting way. He's holding her too tightly.
She catches my eye, and I see desperation there. I'm opening my mouth to speak when the train grinds to a halt and the man stands, hauling her away. She looks at me again, then at the seat behind her, her face pale.
I find the message she left behind. Help me.
When I call the police, there's no sign of the couple on CCTV. The kind detective gently suggests that it's not surprising, with my history, that I am imagining things. Wanting to save someone.
I know what I saw. If no one will believe me, I'll find her myself.
But as I search, what I find seems personal. Little things that remind me of what happened ten years ago. And I think I'm being followed, that someone broke into my flat.
The hunt for the woman on the train is leading me somewhere I should never go. Can I save her, or will I be next?
My Review
Every day, Laura commutes by train to her job as a customer service representative. She hates her job, her boss hates her, and her new co-worker Sam has a crush on her that she wishes he didn't. However, her life might be finally looking up. Pottery has only been a hobby up until now. But an article in the news has brought her to the attention of a reputable gallery owner who wants to see more of her work.
She's happily staring at the story on her phone one morning when a couple on the train catch her eye. Laura senses something's not right. She sees fear in the woman's eyes and notices the tight grip the man has on her arm. When he forcefully tugs her off the train at the next stop, Laura is convinced she witnessed an abduction. A note the woman left behind confirms it. Help me.
But when Laura tries to get help, nobody wants to believe her. Not her boss. Not her mother. Not even the police. But why would they? The article did more than feature her pottery. It told everyone about her dark past. Only Sam believes what she saw, but Laura suspects he has an ulterior motive. That leaves only Laura to save the woman from the train before it's too late.
A sinister, fast-paced psychological thriller, "The Couple on the Train" by Claire Cooper is so taut with suspense and pulse-pounding scenes that you'll find yourself chewing on your nails as you white-knuckle the book. That's quite a mental image, isn't it? But trust me. This book is enough to make you assume the pose -- or invest in hands-free reading. Strangely addicting and mildly frustrating at the same time, the dual timelines in the book keep you glued to the pages. It becomes clear that in order to figure out what's going on with the missing woman in Laura's present-day, you'll first have to figure out what happened in her past when she was still a teen hanging out with her friends.
But beware of the evil that's lurking in some of the chapters! While the story is told from Laura's point-of-view, it's also told from an unknown character's perspective whose interior monologue appears in italics -- and who is as creepy as the psychopath watching from the shadows in a slasher flick.
Reading "The Couple on the Train" is a dizzying, compelling ride on the most twisted roller coaster you can imagine. While you're looking one way, a twist comes at you from the other direction and flips you knees over elbows. The character of Laura is maddening. So much so, that it appears like she's as mad as the police believe her to be. But she's not. The creep-o in italics proves it. It's only when her past and present collide that the mystery of the couple on the train is solved, and the long-hidden truth about them and Laura is revealed. My heart was in my throat at the end. The final twist was so shocking, it made my stomach feel a bit uneasy from the jolt. I loved it!
Thank you to author Claire Cooper and Bookouture for the complimentary eARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Claire Cooper grew up in a small village in south Wales before moving to London to study for a degree in Ancient History and Egyptology. After a spell as a development worker in Nepal, she lived in the capital for many years, spending much of that time as a civil servant in a range of different Government departments. She hung up her bowler hat when she discovered she much preferred writing about psychotic killers to Ministerial speeches. More recently, she returned to Wales, and now lives with her husband by the sea in Pembrokeshire. She also writes as C. J. Cooper.
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