Friday, April 29, 2016

Lisa Lutz: The Passenger

Lisa Lutz takes the readers on a suspenseful read with a woman on the run who will do anything to survive:

Tanya Dubois does not do what most women would do if they came upon their husband dead at the bottom of the stairs, she runs, cashes out her credit cards and dyes her hair brown. She is now on the run again, but who and/or what is she running from. As her journey ensues she becomes multiple people along the way and meets those who will both help and hinder her along the way. All she knows is that she has to keep running at all costs and this means doing things she never thought she was capable of.

I know Lutz as an author from The Spellman Files series, which is a great mix of mystery and laughs, The Passenger however, is a completely different realm of Lutz's writing for me and I have to say I like the path that she has taken with this book. Overall I enjoyed this book as you follow Tanya and her run from something all over the USA. You know that she is running from her past and some crime but you really do not find out what it is till near the end of the book which I liked. This really kept the suspense going from what she is running from and who will come for her next and what will she have to do in order to survive and keep going.

It was interesting to see "Tanya" create a back story for each new person that she has to becomes and tries to decide what this person likes. However, because Tanya does this each time she becomes someone new,  you only get to know a little bit of each new person that she becomes and not her as a whole but part of the problem is I don't think she knows who she is either any more. This is evident in her train of thoughts that she has I will say that this speak to her strength and will to survive that is underneath it all but you only really get an eighth of  a character and not a full fledge one that many people are looking for in a book. I think that by having so many partial characters developed and I still found I was able to follow the book and it was still very interesting speaks to Lutz as an author 

I would love a book about Blue, that is one that I would pick up in a heartbeat. Even though she is not in the majority of the book, she is a character that could have her own book. From the very first time that you meet her she stands out. I am interested in her as a character, her past, what lead her to certain aspects and points in the book that we do see of her.

I'm on the fence about the email approach in order to get the tidbits of information about Tanya's past, for some reason I did not like this aspect of the book but cannot figure out why or even a different way that Lutz could impart this information to the reader. Just was not my favourite part. I'm also not sure what Dominic's part in this book was other than love interest. Seemed like Lutz felt like she had to have a love interest for Tanya that she kind of just threw him in. He doesn't really add much to the story or overall plot and things would work out the same if he was not in the book. I think if you are going to give your main character a love interest at least have them have some sort of other purpose in the book.

This was an interesting and good departure for Lutz from the Spellman files. I liked the overall mystery that she created as well as the intrigue of who Tanya will become next. I hope that Lutz stays on this path and I'm interested to see what she comes up with next.

Enjoy!!!
If You Like This,
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http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2013/05/sohpie-littlefield-bad-day-for-sorry.html  http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2011/10/sandra-brown-witness.html  http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2015/01/alex-marwood-killer-next-door.html

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