The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
Jo has been living under a new name after fleeing her hometown
and a warrant for murder. She met a nice
enough guy and got married and life was comfortable if nothing else. Then her husband fell down the stairs and
died. It was an accident, but she knows
if she stayed around her identity would soon come to light. Instead of only being wanted for one murder,
she is now under suspicion for another.
So begins the story of Jo, a woman who simply wants to go home and be Jo
again, and the many identities she takes on along the way.
Every few chapters Jo needs to change her name again and in
today’s world of background checks and hard to get identification the ways she
finds to survive are eye-opening.
Thankfully, or not you’re not sure as you’re reading, Jo meets Blue
another woman on the run and in need of a new life. Ally or enemy it’s hard to tell, but these
formidable women cross paths a few times in the narrative.
I really liked that I had no clue why Jo had to flee her life as
a teenager until very far into the book.
You get glimpses, but eventually the whole story is revealed and you
kind of want to scream from the unfairness of it all. Rest assured, things end well for her, this
isn’t one of those dark depressing thrillers, this is a thriller where a woman
beaten down by life gets her comeuppance in the end. But I have to wonder, does she really?
