The Late Train To Gipsy Hill

The Late Train To Gipsy Hill - Alan Johnson

Description

A woman hiding a deadly secret. And the man who went in search of adventure, but found himself in danger ...

Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He's never dared to strike up a conversation . . . but maybe one day.

Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.

From that moment, Gary's life is turned on its head. He finds himself on the run from the Russian mafia, the FSB and even the Metropolitan Police - all because of what this mysterious young woman may have witnessed. In the race to find out the truth, Gary discovers that there is a lot more to her than meets the eye . . .

Review

I was drawn to this book as it was by the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson and I wanted to see if he could write - and he can!

A great story, which to begin with I wasn't sure was going to be that exciting, but once our hero got involved with the waitress Arina it got very interesting. After a while I got a little confused with the all Russian names and who was who, who was Russian Mafia and who was FSB. Personally I found it difficult to retain all of the names and just went with it. Luckily there were some breadcrumbs laid down to remind you every so often of what was happening.

I liked the characters and they were very believable. Gary is out of his depth and thinks he's protecting Arina but all is not what it seems. There was also some light hearted humour at times. The only part that didn't ring true for me was some of the Met Police scenes and particularly those involving a side plot.

The ending wasn't what I was expecting. To me it did feel a little rushed. All of a sudden it was a race to tell the reader everything that had happened and all the twists you missed along the way. Having said that pretty much an Agatha Christie formulaic ending.

My thanks to Pigeonhole for the ARC to read.

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