First take

Having just finished Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on a Train, the big fiction seller so far this year, I was impressed. It was an enjoyable read, maybe better than that, but impressive for several reasons beyond that. One is its seeming simplicity and (in a way not meant as a criticism) almost a rote feel. Characters who are not cops or lawyers or supertalented spies but ordinary people doing, for the most part, ordinary things. A slow and gradual build toward a thriller ending – and the patience...