Book: The Woman in Carriage 3

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Author: Alison Jamesn

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Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for an advanced audio copy.

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The Woman in Carriage 3 was not at all what I was expecting after reading the plot summary.

An ordinary journey. A shocking secret. And the perfect murder…

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Hattie travels on the 18.53 train home every night. She sits in the same seat, in the same carriage, and sees the same people. The unwritten rule is you don’t talk to your fellow passengers, but Hattie has been watching them all for months now to distract herself from her own troubles.

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Then one night a commuter suddenly drops dead. And the terrible accident changes everything.

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In the aftershock of the tragic death, the group of strangers huddled around the two tables in carriage 3 strike up a conversation. Boundaries are shattered, connections are made and Hattie becomes tangled up in the lives of her fellow passengers as they travel to and from London every day.

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But Hattie has no idea what she’s letting herself in for. The ordinary people on her ordinary journey all have dangerous secrets. When another commuter is killed, Hattie suspects someone in carriage 3 is responsible. Who can she trust? And is the truth closer to home and more dangerous than she could have guessed?

I was expecting this to be almost like a locked room mystery on a train. The majority of the book is not even on the train. It spans locations from England to Mexico and follows a couple of bad characters making bad decisions.n

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The main character Hattie was not a character I liked. She was easily manipulated and I didn’t even feel bad for her. She gets herself into some crappy situations with no one to blame but herself.

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The actual murder was barely a subplot, it had very little to do with the overarching story.

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As for the story, If this was branded differently I would probably have liked the book as a whole a little better. Even with the bad characters I did enjoy the story.n

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I do recommend this book but don’t expect a good mystery. Go in expecting bad characters and a story that will have you questioning just how stupid some people can be.

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Final Score 3/5