“Intricate and nuanced—on par with the best top-flight psychological suspense.” —L.A. TimesINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom master of suspense Lisa Unger comes a riveting thriller about a chance encounter that unravels a stunning web of lies.Selena Murphy is commuting home on the train when she strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat. The woman introduces herself as … conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat. The woman introduces herself as Martha and soon confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.
Then the nanny disappears.
As Selena is pulled into the mystery of what happened, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, she begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover…
Looking for more gripping suspense? Check out Last Girl Ghosted, also from New York Times bestselling thriller writer Lisa Unger.
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With plotting as intricate as a finely-crafted Swiss watch, Lisa Unger’s CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45, is a mesmerizing ride on a bullet train of psychological suspense. It’s a clever weaving of well-drawn characters, twists and turns, evocative of Highsmith and Hitchcock with a story that blasts by all the stops.
Enthralling, engrossing, and tangy, this is the kind of book that makes meeting responsibilities seem trivial.
So great was my compulsion to continue reading that I lost the better part of yesterday in a blur of pages.
Selena meets a stranger on her commute home and feels strangely compelled to overshare that she suspects her husband is cheating on her with their nanny, Geneva. Martha, likewise, overshares that she is sleeping with her married boss. When Geneva mysteriously disappears a few days later a delish little cat and mouse game commences.
Told from three POVs, this one had me racing to figure out what the heck was happening. Everyone is a mess and everyone has juicy secrets and no one’s life is as good as it looks from the outside.
Thank you to Lisa Unger, Park Row and Edelweiss for giving me this DRC in exchange for an honest review!
The plot of this novel sucked me as soon as I read it. Selena, a mother of two, is coming home on the train after a day at her office when the woman beside her strikes up a conversation. Martha confesses to sleeping with her boss, and in a moment of uncharacteristic openness, Selena confesses she believes her husband is sleeping with her nanny, Geneva. When the train reaches its destination, the two part ways. Not long afterward, Geneva goes missing.
As the police launch an investigation, Selena’s marriage and her whole world implodes. Who was the woman on the train, and why is Selena suddenly receiving text messages from her?
I found this book a bit slow getting off the ground, especially when a third character outside of the main thread (Pearl) was introduced. Although I liked Pearl—a lot—there were a few hiccups in following what was happening, when. By the middle of the book, however, I was hooked and couldn’t read fast enough to see how everything played out.
The twists and turns, much like left and right jabs, kept flying out of nowhere. A few elements stretch the imagination, but for sheer entertainment value, this is a delicious psychological thriller with a superbly satisfying ending. Another book I would love to see made into a movie. I will definitely seek out more by this author.
I’ve been a fan of Lisa Unger for years, because she just keeps getting better and better at her craft. Last year’s awesome THE STRANGER INSIDE blew me away, and this new one, CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45, didn’t disappoint either. Fans of the long con will love this book, and those of you who think everything is okay at home will rethink every interaction you have. A wonderful, twisty, engaging read.
Lisa Unger has done it again! Brilliantly crafted and exquisitely suspenseful, Lisa Unger’s CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 had me in its grips from the very first page. With Unger’s one of a kind eye for detail and perfect pacing, this bold and original novel is not to be missed. Unger’s best yet!
Unger takes you deep into the minds of psychopaths, and while you wouldn’t want to live there, what wild, creepy places they are to visit. Unger is at the top of her game here.
Smart, textured and unsettling, Confessions on the 7:45 may just be my favorite Lisa Unger book yet. With multiple POVs, deliciously devious twists, loads of secrets and lies, this book is cleverly plotted and compulsively readable. I highly recommend for thriller and mystery fans who love empathetically woven characters and a few heart-pounding scenes along the way.
Told from multiple viewpoints, the cheating-husband theme gets retold several times. Somehow, the author manages to make the naughty-nanny, horny-daddy trope fresh (perhaps because the nanny professes several times how much she likes Selena, her employer, mother of the two boys, and wife to the guy it’s hard to imagine Selena ever married). Understanding that mystery comes as the onion-skin of Selena’s childhood get peeled back. Which explains why she continues to insist on believing her husband really isn’t a cheater, a liar, and a possible murderer. She rationalizes he has never hit her, and the reasoning makes sense with further reading. The real twists come with gaining insight into the other con artists. Infidelity is the stuff of fiction, and this novel weaves together an old case and a contemporary one to paint a possibly incredulous–but entertaining–connection. At times, the portrayal of men as having no redeemable qualities verges on a screed. BUT … the author presents four men who balance out that view, adding to the complexity of the novel. The final setting is a consummate tongue-in-cheek ploy that merits a shivery laugh. I’m glad I put the book at the top of my TBR pile.
Strangers telling each other their deepest secrets starts the ball rolling as we find many characters with secrets, characters who tell lies, characters who are manipulative, and characters who aren’t who they seem.
Martha and Selena meet by chance on the train coming home, and they exchange secrets.
Martha is having an affair with her boss.
Selena saw in the nanny camera that her husband was having an affair with the nanny.
Martha replied by saying that maybe the nanny will disappear, and then the nanny does disappear.
Selena doesn’t reply but regrets telling her secret.
What do all of these characters have to do with each other and with the events that have been happening?
There are quite a few characters to keep straight and characters that cross paths, but how do they all fit in and connect?
CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 is truly addictive. It is one surprise after another.
You won’t want to put it down because of the writing and the cunning, who-do-you-believe characters and the who-could-think-of these things that are happening.
Make sure this book makes it into your TBR for this fall. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Confessions on the 7:45 is a masterclass in storytelling. The pacing, the characters, and the story are all pitch-perfect. This is an unforgettable novel.
Lisa Unger is the queen of suspense. I couldn’t put down this creepy, twisty thriller. Lisa crafts such realistic characters that the reader comes to care — and fear — for them. A shocker of a thriller.
Lisa Unger expertly unravels the layers of mystery and deceit at the heart of this chilling thriller. What begins with a missing woman and a chance encounter twists with each new discovery, taking a sharp look at the people we think we know. A gripping, haunting story that kept me guessing until the very end.
Confessions on the 7:45 is a stellar work of psychological suspense — rich, deep, and full of surprises. Lisa Unger grabs you, pulls you in, and keeps you guessing. Read it!
I love any Lisa Unger story and this was a good one. Selena is an overworked mom with a cheating husband. She strikes up a conversation with a stranger on the train ride home and this turns her world upside down! It was a crazy ride! There’s a story within this story and it kept me guessing until the end.
Just when you think you have everything figured out, Lisa Unger surprises you over and over again. This novel is a con game with a mix of Strangers on the Train thrown in.
Selena is in love with her husband, Graham, and is happy with her nanny, Geneva, for her two sons. But, when she catches them together, and when a stranger on the 7:45 train (Martha) tells her a big secret, Selena shares her secret to Martha.
When Geneva disappears, Selena wonders what her husband is capable of doing.
Anna is having an affair with her married boss, but his wife gives Anna an ultimatum.
This novel has many women wronged by men, women conning men to get revenge, and the timelines don’t have dates, so there is some confusion and intentional misdirection by the author. I finally had an aha moment about 45% through the novel, and things started to make sense. But, there were still some surprises to come.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Opinions are my own and freely given.
Unger delivers a dark and disturbing version of Oceans 11 in this novel. It’s very twisty and shocking.
I didn’t like the profanity or intimate scenes.
I borrowed a copy from my local library. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
Confessions on the 7:45 is touted as a thriller, and I suppose it could be called a domestic thriller, but it felt more like a drama to me. It does have a certain tension, and Unger does know her stuff when it comes to atmosphere, but this one was entirely too predictable. There wasn’t a single twist that surprised me, There were also a few too many points of view. Some were necessary, but some just felt like filler and slowed things down. It’s those lags in the story that bother me the most. Lisa Unger clearly has talent, and there were elements here that were great, including the character development of the main players in this game. I just would’ve liked some actual suspense in the story, something to catch me off guard. I did keep reading, and I didn’t skim (even though I wanted to once or twice), so it’s safe to say that I was interested in how things would come out for Selena and Pearl and Pop and Graham… I’m sure you get my point. There were things I liked and things I didn’t, but the book was worth the read., so I landed somewhere in the middle.
Took me a few chapters to get caught up in this book, but everything came together and turned into a page turner!
Very fast paced.
Loved the duplicitous characters and overlapping stories and timelines of Lisa Unger’s latest thriller. The suspense kept me on edge, and although teasingly familiar (strangers with secrets meeting on a train), it *never* went in the direction I expected! Don’t peak, but the last line of the book is brilliant. Stellar book narration by Vivienne Leheny.