The Girl on the Train

YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU.
Rear Window meets Gone Girl, in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller

'Gripping, enthralling - a top-notch thriller and a compulsive read'
S J WATSON, bestselling author of Before I Go To Sleep

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction.

Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Paula moved to London in 1989 and has lived there ever since. The Girl on the Train is her first thriller.

What the critics say

Gripping, enthralling - a top-notch thriller and a compulsive read
- S J Watson

The Girl On The Train was so thrilling and tense and wildly unpredictable, it sucked up my entire afternoon. I simply could not put it down. Not to be missed!
- Tess Gerritsen

What a group of characters, what a situation, what a book! It's Alfred Hitchcock for a new generation and a new era
- Terry Hayes, bestselling author of I Am Pilgrim

My vote for unreliable narrator of the year
- The Times

Clever and compelling! Hawkins keeps the tension ratcheted high in this thoroughly engrossing tale of intersecting strangers and intimate betrayals. Kept me guessing until the very end!
- Lisa Gardner

The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl
- New York Times

Assured and confident . . . A building inescapable tension that Hawkins handles superbly . . . The thriller scene will have to up its game if it's to match Hawkins this year.
- Observer

A thriller that grabs you from the first page and takes you on a high speed ride full of twists and turns. Gazing out of the train window will never be the same again!
- Colette McBeth, author of Precious Thing and The Life I Left Behind

an impressive thriller debut
- Guardian

A tight thriller with refreshingly realistic, nasty characterisation and an intricate weaving of narrative voices . . . A cleverly crafted piece of modern suburban noir
- Independent on Sunday

This is unputdownable . . . A fast, clever thriller with a flawed, entertaining heroine
- Paula Daly

Like its train, the story blasts through the stagnation of these lives in suburban London and the reader cannot help but turn the pages . . The welcome echoes of Rear Windowthroughout the story and its propulsive narrative make The Girl on the Train an absorbing read
- Boston Globe

There's nothing like a really excellent thriller to kick-start a new year, and this one's a beauty
- Saga Magazine

Compulsive reading
- Marie Claire

a novel that grabbed me from the start and didn't let go
- Woman & Home

Hawkins's taut story roars along at the pace of, well, a high-speed train . . . a smart, searing thriller'
- Good Housekeeping (US)

addictive
- Observer

If you like your books twisty and your narrators unreliable and flawed, this is for you
- Cosmopolitan

Wow, now I know why it has caused such a stir. Taut, tight, utterly compulsive. Once you embark you won't want to get off until the very last stop
- Tammy Cohen

Artfully crafted and utterly riveting. The Girl on the Train's clever structure and expert pacing will keep you perched on the edge of your seat, but it's Hawkins' deft, empathetic characterization that will leave you pondering this harrowing, thought-provoking story about the power of memory and the danger of envy.
- Kimberly McCreight, New York Times-bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia

Damn you #girlonthetrain . . . you unputdownable, you. So twisty, compassionate and gritty. Loved it. Deserves to be massive
- Tweet from Julia Crouch

Going to be THE book of 2015. Sexy, smart & v intricately plotted
- Tweet from Eva Dolan

Brilliant, fast-moving, very clever. Add to your January wish-list now!
- Tweet from Mark Edwards

Be ready to be spell-bound . . . It's the kind of book you'll want to press into the hands of everyone you know, after you've turned the last page, just so they can share your obsession and you can relive it
- Laura Kasischke, author of The Raising

Compulsively readable…. It actually hurt to put it down
- JOY FIELDING, New York Times bestselling author of Now You See Her