"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train was immensely popular when it first came out two years ago. The concept of utilizing an unreliable narrator seemed intriguing and new at the time, and readers ate this book up. I waited for all the hype to die down and only recently decided to give this a go in an audio book format. I did enjoy the audio book and do highly recommend it. The book is written from the perspective of three different women and three different narrators read their parts. I thought the actresses did a great job through voice and inflection, portraying the three distinct characters:

1. Rachel: a heart-broken alcoholic who tends to drink herself into oblivion most days and who most likely "saw something" that could help solve the case of a missing woman but unfortunately can't remember much,
2. Megan: a troubled and impulsively promiscuous young woman who's gone missing, and finally
3. Anna: a self-righteous and supercilious "other woman" and now the wife of Rachel's ex-husband, who is partially the reason why Rachel is on the path of self-destruction.

Overall, I rated this book 3 our of 5 stars. I enjoyed all the characters, and the author kept me guessing. The suspense was also good. But I did not think it was as great as everyone made it out to be. It was a decent murder mystery/thriller, quite entertaining and fast-paced. There is a lot of heavy drinking in this book as the key narrator is an alcoholic. The author did a great job getting into the mind of someone struggling with addiction and showing the misery and utter horror of losing oneself to drink. But the overall murder mystery plot was nothing to write home about. I would recommend it to everyone who likes the mystery/thriller genre. I for one am planning to read Paula Hawkins' next book and see how she does there.