The Continental Affair - Christine Mangan

Fiction

Rating: 8/10

Henri and Louise are two strangers at a crossroads in their lives when they meet on a train travelling across Europe. The thing is, this isn’t the first time they have met. Both are on the run from their troubles and happenstance has connected them in the most ambiguous of ways.

There seems to be an unspoken agreement between them that for this moment, in this place, the past does not exist. That they hadn’t in fact been in each other’s company, in one way or another, for weeks. Pretending that their fates are not inextricably entwined. That everything about them is nothing but lies.

The narrative voices alternate between the two and are often off kilter in terms of where they pick up and leave off in the telling of their story, which only adds to the intrigue.

This book was a delightful riff on a familiar genre. Teasing out an elegant and subtle cat and mouse caper with beguiling and haunted characters roaming a cosmopolitan landscape.

Very Hitchcockian in how the writing and plotting are used throw a wink or two to the audience.

This is one train trip I be happy to get on board with.

Book Pairing(s): The Spectacular by Fiona Davis, Two Nights In Lisbon by Chris Pavone, The Beginners by Anne Serre