The Girl on the Train

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The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Riverhead Books: 2015, 325 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

Rachel, a recently divorced and depressed woman, takes a commuter train each work day and observes her old street from the window.  One day she notices something odd and subsequently involves herself in a mystery.  This book definitely seems to be written for Gone Girl fans as it has some similarities.  However, the character development is a bit shallow and I found it hard to follow at first because the chapters switch from different characters in first person.  That being said, it did keep me interested and I read it in one day.  I found the ending predictable but not disappointing.  

Ripper

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Ripper
Isabel Allende
Harper: 2013/4, 496 pages
Reviewed by Jessie Park

Indiana Jackson is a holistic healer who believes in essential oils and how the planets affect her future.  Amanda Martin is her teenage daughter who is set to go to MIT and spends all her time on Ripper, an online gaming community that focuses on solving crimes.  Over the course of several months, San Francisco experiences several seemingly unrelated murders.  Amanda and her Ripper colleagues, which includes her grandfather Blake, meet online and try to solve the cases, becoming more convinced that they are all done by the same twisted person.  Amanda and Blake have the inside access since her father, Bob Martin, is the homicide police chief.  Things become personal when Indiana is kidnapped and Amanda is dead sure that the kidnapper is the same murderer the Ripper players have been chasing.  It's a race against time as Amanda and the Ripper players try to solve the murders and shed light on the murderer's identity while Bob rallies the police force to find his ex-wife before it's too late.  Adding to the action is Ryan Miller, Indiana's best friend who is also in love with her.  He's a highly skilled ex-Navy SEAL who will stop at nothing to ensure her safety, even if he's the number one suspect in her disappearance.  This is not a light read but it does pick up towards the middle as much of the book goes into the backgrounds of the characters.  There is violence throughout the book but it is not intensely gory.

The Girl on the Train

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Riverhead Books: 2015, 336 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Touted as "the next Gone Girl," The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller set in the suburbs of London.  Rachel is an alcoholic who lost both her job and her marriage.  She rides the train into London every morning so her roommate won't find out that Rachel lost her job.  From the train, she becomes obsessed with a couple who she often sees sitting on their deck, drinking their morning coffee, inventing personalities and even names for this idyllic couple.  When the wife goes missing, Rachel becomes way too involved in the investigation into her disappearance, putting herself in danger.  This book alternates chapters from the points of view of three women: Rachel; Anna, Rachel's ex-husband's new wife; and Megan, the woman who goes missing.  It had enough twists to keep me riveted and I would highly recommend it to fans of crime novels/thrillers.

Blood Orchid

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Blood Orchids (Lei Crime #1)

Toby Neal

Self-Published sold by Amazon Digital Services: 2011, 314 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Blood Orchids is the first of Toby Neal's series that focus on Hawaiian policeman Lei Texeira.  Lei had a very troubled past but is trying to move forward, even if she still has some spells that she'd rather keep on the down low.  On patrol, she and her partner find two murdered teenage girls and she wants in on the investigation, even if she hasn't been promoted to a detective just yet.  Adding to the stress is that fact that she is being stalked.  But working with the lead detective has been pleasant, even with all the chaos around her.  Readers should be aware that certain scenes can be triggers; there is sexual assault (adult and child) and some violence.

And Then There Were None

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And Then There Were None

(Also published as Ten Little Indians)

Agatha Christie

Bantam Books: 1983, 194 pages

(Originally published by Collins Crime Club: 1939, 272 pages)

Reviewed by Jessie Park

And Then There Were None is Agatha Christie's best-selling novel and also one of the best-selling books of all time, and for a good reason.  This mystery will leave you guessing until the very end.  A group of ten seemingly random people from all backgrounds are invited to spend time on Indian Island in England, all under different pretexts.  The real reason for their visit is to fulfill someone's sick sense of justice.  All of the people are charged with killings from their past but were never convicted or had to undergo any legal proceedings.  Stuck on the island with no way to leave, one by one the guests are killed off and the group realizes that the killer is one of them.  But who among them is the twisted killer?  Can they trust anyone?  Or even themselves?