In a writer as brilliant as Paula, it is better to tackle the task of establishing the ranking of her works as soon as possible. Because then comes the almost industrial production, the cadence novels in their perfectly periodic publication. Authenticity is also measured when the author on duty is not carried away by commercial inertias that request more and more works.
Why doña Paula hawkins was one of the last earthquake effect writers of that perfect hybrid that is the black gender and the thriller. And although that first work still resonates as difficult to surpass even for itself, there is no doubt that improvement is always possible. The point is that Hawkins went on to sell millions of books because of her imprint to offer us a plot of maximum tension. It's just about finding new scenarios for it. Meanwhile other interesting novels await us…
In other words, we cannot deny that this type of literature that appears with so much power, sometimes remains in bloom for a day. But In the case of Hawkins, he knew how to ride the wave of his first and triumphant novel with dignity with a second story that, if it was not enough, at least it did reach a notorious quality.. So I'm sure it will all be a matter of time.
Top recommended novels by Paula Hawkins
The girl on the train
There is something unsettling about routine, any routine. In the film The Truman Show, the feeling that the world is transformed into a gigantic set is addressed by our subjective perception as the protagonists of our lives.
On this occasion, the writer knew how to make an intelligent transmutation of Rachel's anodyne life (with that immediate tune of the daily life of her life) projected towards other characters with whom she only interacts as mere decorative elements of her life, as patterns of the day Today, very similar but identical characters that must be there so that each new day on the train to work confers on the future of Rachel in the safe environment of the usual. From that point, proposing any change facilitates a disruptive touch from which the tension can reach unimaginable heights. Rachel had named a couple like any other who drank coffee.
The lives of others sometimes serve to highlight deficiencies and other miseries of their own. The problem is that Rachel, our observer friend of her routine, may also be being watched. Nothing worse than the complete routine to be able to succumb to a perverse plan of someone who knows the precise cadence of your movements, once chance links you with the ominous. 8:04 am, like so many other days.
The train continues its course once again. And yet, with that chilling lucidity of the sixth sense, Rachel discovers that chilling warning that something strange is brewing around her. Maybe by looking too much and ending up seeing what she should never have seen.
To simmer
Revenge is a dish that is served cold, without a doubt. Paradoxically, everything that involves the planning and development of a good menu requires that care and low heat. Even more so if we cook a spite. The greatest avenger is that past that we would like to bury forever. Until something begins to move underground, a particular earthquake that returns the remains of our previous life to the surface. And this second time the stench becomes unbearable. And perhaps the whole world knows about the monster that rules us since betrayal came into our lives ...
The discovery of the body of a brutally murdered young man on a London houseboat sparks suspicions over three women. Laura is the troubled girl who stayed with the victim the night she died; Carla, still mourning the death of a relative, is the young man's aunt; and Miriam is the prying neighbor who hides information about the case from the police. Three women who do not know each other, but who have different connections with the victim. Three women who, for different reasons, live with resentment and who, consciously or unconsciously, wait for the moment to repair the damage that has been done to them.
Written in the water
Every good psychological thriller must have a starting point halfway between the crime novel and the anguish of the drama. When Nel abbott the sister of Jules, dies mysteriously, those two necessary aspects take off: the doubt about a possible murder or violent death on the one hand, and the drama, the concern about the loss of a loved one on the other. Serve this review to clarify lovers of "The girl on the train”That, beyond the thematic harmony between the two novels, the plots move at different rates.
It is not the same that a mystery appears in your life by chance that a traumatic trigger such as the violent death of a sister suddenly shakes you. However, this difference in rhythms will not be disappointing for a reader of this author. Quite the opposite. From the first page, Paula hawkins already throws the bait so you can't stop reading.
Have you read The Invisible Guardian of Dolores Redondo? I'm asking you because there are some interesting similarities in the way you approach the story. The stormy pasts of the characters are a great tool to gradually insert that past that weighs down their movements, and that endows these protagonists with a weight of their own that advances with the general plot of the story.
When Jules returns to the town of her childhood, dragged by the painful circumstances of her sister's death, we begin to think about that something else that the protagonist is hiding as best she can, until a click awakens the dark side of Jule, in the same way that It happens with Amaia Salazar in The invisible guardian. The stillness of the waters can convey serenity, except for those who know what can be hidden in the depths.
Other recommended books by Paula Hawkins…
Blind point
All past yearns to fold back on oneself as time goes by. Memories are the necessary hook for those who finally give in and surrender to being consumed by what they have experienced. Sometimes it's even worse. Because when the past keeps its secrets to itself as proof of the prosecuting attorney, the reunion becomes inevitable. The mists of yesterday always lurk, until they end up hovering over today with their absolute darkness.
Since they were children Edie, Jake and Ryan have been inseparable. The three of them against the world. Edie thought her friendship could take on anything, so when her husband Jake is brutally murdered and her best friend Ryan is framed for the crime, her world falls apart.
Edie is alone for the first time in years in the cliff house she shared with Jake. She is grieving and she is afraid, and she has reason to be, because someone is watching her, someone who has been waiting for this moment. Now that Edie is vulnerable, the past she has desperately tried to run away from is about to knock on her door.
Paula Hawkins, the author of The Girl on the Train, offers us an exciting novel in which we will discover that even the best-intentioned act can have tragic consequences. A story full of twists and turns superbly written by the undisputed queen of suspense.
In The Girl on the Train, I don't know if it's the original or the translation, but I go to page 100, and I've already seen 4 or 5 blunders (contradictions ... say A, and after a while it turns out that it was B)
Well, mine would be from a later run because I didn't see anything strange.