Two women meet by chance and discover that they are both victims of abusive husbands. Together, they plot their revenge...
'A highly enjoyable story about female resilience... with a twist that is all the more compelling for its unexpectedness' Sunday Times
'She's such a skilful storyteller, who vividly dramatizes our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' Bernardine Evaristo
'Amanda Craig anatomises the state of the nation with wit and empathy' Jonathan Coe
'An irresistible summer read' Guardian
'A typically sharp and hugely satisfying page-turner' Daily Mail
When Hannah is invited into the first-class carriage of the London to Penzance train, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, she once escaped Cornwall to go to university, but after marriage to Jake her dreams turned to bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for a rich woman, and Hannah has survived by working as a cleaner. Jinni is equally angry, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them?
But when Hannah goes to Jinni's house she meets its shambolic caretaker, who claims Jinni is very different to the person Hannah had been led to believe. Who is telling the truth - and what will become of the women's pact to commit a terrible crime?
A tight, lean thriller about two women who decide to murder each other's husbands. Dotted throughout are Craig's acute observations of society, in particular the corrosive effects of poverty. Yet this skilful storyteller is never preachy. We are swept along because of her knack of creating characters we care about. Only on closing the book do we realise we've not just been entertained but made to think too
