The Passenger by F.R. Tallis

The Passenger: A Novel by F.R. Tallis
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

The year is 1941 and a German submarine, U471, patrons North Atlantic when a triple-encoded message reaches its commander Siegfried Lorenz. They are to collect two prisoners from a vessel located off the Icelandic coast and transport them to the base at Brest. The prisoners are British submarine commander, Sutherland, and a Norwegian academic, Professor Bjornar Grimstad. But after the prisoners have boarded U471 doesn’t it take long before Sutherland goes rogue…

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I will not give away much of the plot since I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone. But there are happenings on the submarine after the two prisoners have left the submarine that seems supernatural. It’s almost like the vessel is cursed. And, on the paper that sounds like a very intriguing idea. But unfortunately, the story wasn’t that interesting to read. I had some real problem with the story, I was just not that interested in the happenings in the submarine and often I felt my focus shift while I read the book.

But there were moments when the book was good. For instance, I liked the part when Siegfried Lorenz was on shore leave and you get to know him and his family more. There were also moments on the submarine that I liked when you could feel the danger they were in. But the paranormal stuff, it just didn’t work out (not until the very end that was good). Personally, I was disappointed over the lack of suspense. I just never felt that the paranormal events onboard were that interesting. I would have preferred the book without that and just read about its crew and its missions.

I often thought while I read the book that this would have worked so much better as a movie than book. Then you can add suspenseful music and really bring forth the claustrophobic feeling in the submarine. But, if it is to be a movie do I want Thomas Kretschmann to plays Siegfried Lorenz. I may have imagined him in the role during the reading…

I want to thank the publisher for proving me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review!