Confessions on the 7:45

 

For a psychological thriller, I would say this one is far more psychology and a lot less thrill, but it’s still a well-written character study, with a healthy dose of intrigue and mystery.  This is the tale of Selena Murphy, her husband Graham, and the ugly aftermath that ensues when he’s caught on the nanny cam behaving badly with said nanny.  In her state of vulnerability, Selena shares Graham’s newly discovered misdeeds with a mysterious stranger, Martha, on her train ride home.  When Geneva - the nanny - disappears, the proverbial bag of worms is opened and events unfold that cast a suspicious light, not only on Selena and Graham, but Martha and a number of other potential suspects in the disappearance.  Unger tells her story with multiple threads unpacking the stories of Selena, Martha, and a few other female characters, whose interconnectedness isn’t immediately apparent.  The book is the process of unpeeling the layers of the onion to see who these women are and how their stories relate to one another.

I really enjoyed how the main female characters were fleshed out and thought Unger did a good job of building their backstories, personalities and motivations.  The mystery and tying together of threads was intriguing and kept me fully invested in the story to the very end, eager to put the puzzle together.  On the downside, I don’t know if the author intended it to be as easy as it was to figure out a lot of aspects of the story in advance, but that kept it from being as suspenseful or thrilling as I would’ve liked.  I also felt like most of the men in the story were written in a fairly negative, shallow way that almost felt like a caricature instead of a fully realized human.  On an editing front, I would’ve eliminated the final two chapters or put in a brief epilogue.  It felt like dragging the story on after its natural conclusion, and I didn’t find the events of those chapters realistic or particularly interesting in any way.

All in all a fun read, and I’d happily recommend it to those who like a good psychological mystery with some interesting twists and turns.  Just look for your thrills elsewhere!

★★★★