By early March 2015, the novel had sold over 1 million copies,[6] and 1.5 million by April.[7] It has occupied the number one spot of the U.K. hardback book chart for 20 weeks, the longest any book has ever held the top spot.[8] By early August 2015, the book had sold more than 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.
The film rights were acquired by DreamWorks Pictures in 2014 for Marc Platt Productions.[9]The story is a first person narrative told from the point of view of three women: Rachel, Anna and Megan.
Rachel Watson is a 32-year-old alcoholic reeling from the dissolution of her marriage to Tom, who left her for another woman. Rachel's drinking has caused her to lose her job and have frequent binges and blackouts, during which she harasses Tom by phone and sometimes even in person. He is now married to, and has a daughter with, his former mistress Anna – a situation that fuels Rachel's self-destructive tendencies, as it was her inability to conceive a child that sparked her alcoholism.
Concealing her unemployment from her flatmate, Rachel rides the train to London every day (her old routine), looking longingly at her former house (occupied by Tom and his new family) as she passes by and usually drinking on the return home. She also begins compulsively watching an attractive couple who live a few houses away from Tom, fantasizing about their perfectly happy life together. Rachel has never met them and has no idea that the woman, Megan Hipwell, is actually unhappy in her marriage and helps Anna care for her child. Struggling with her troubled past, Megan starts seeing a therapist, Kamal Abdic, to whom she is attracted.
Rachel is stunned to see Megan kissing a man other than her husband. After a night of heavy drinking, Rachel awakens to find herself bloody and injured, with no memories of the night before, but certain that she has done something she will regret. Soon the disappearance of Megan Hipwell is in the news, and Rachel is summoned to the police station after Anna reports seeing her staggering around drunk in the area the night Megan vanished. Rachel, sure that Megan's husband Scott is innocent, tells the police that she suspects Megan was having an affair. They find it difficult to see her as anything but a sad alcoholic stalking her ex-husband, but they identify the man she saw with Megan as Dr. Abdic. Thinking that she may have seen something—and slightly worried she may have done something to Megan herself—on the day of the incident while blacked out drunk, Rachel begins to investigate the disappearance. She lies to Megan's husband, Scott, to get close to him, in part to help him with what she knows, but also because being closely involved in the mystery is giving her a purpose other than drinking.
Megan's body is found, and Scott becomes the most likely suspect. Megan had been pregnant when she died, but neither Scott nor Abdic is the father. As Scott discovers Rachel's lies and lashes out at her, her memories of the night of the incident become more clear. Rachel remembers seeing Megan get into Tom's car. At the same time, Anna discovers evidence that Tom and Megan were having an affair. Armed with her realization that Tom has manipulated and lied to her all along, Rachel warns Anna. Tom comes home and is confronted with the truth. He confesses to having murdered Megan after she revealed that he had fathered a child with her and threatened him. Anna is cowed in fear of her daughter's safety; and, though Tom tries to beat and intimidate Rachel into keeping silent, she defies him and fights back. Knowing he is about to kill her, Rachel stabs Tom in the neck with a corkscrew. Anna helps Rachel make sure that he dies from the wound, as they watch. Their coordinated stories to the police are clearly in self-defense.
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