The Girl on the Train Characters

Elementary, Dear WatsonWe spend over half the book with Rachel Watson, our titular girl on the train. She's not your typical protagonist, though. Describing herself, she says: I'm not beautiful, an...

Building a MysteryMegan appears to be the book's most complicated character, both because we spend the least amount of time in her point of view out of our three main characters and because the oth...

Mistress of the DarkOut of our three point of view characters, Rachel and Megan both have dual personalities, but Anna only seems to have one—and it's a terrible one. When Rachel imagines Megan a...

And the Award for Worst Human Being Ever Goes To…Tom is the worst. We want to put that out there first thing because in the book the women are so busy being suspicious of each other that they mis...

Not-So-Great ScottScott is half of Rachel's imagined power couple, Jason and Jess. Just as Rachel uncovers that Megan (or "Jess") isn't who she thinks she is, she also discovers Scott isn't the per...

Ack!Cathy is Rachel's friend from college. She's a "nice person" (1.25), who cleans early on Saturday morning. Rachel seems a little petty at first when she describes Cathy as a person who needs ot...

Diagnosis: Murder?Dr. Abdic is one of many characters that defy our expectations, which are set by Rachel's first impressions and overactive imagination. She sees Dr. Abdic kissing Megan, whom she...

To Protect and ServeWe would not want Detective Riley on our case, especially not if we're a woman. There are two officers working on Megan's disappearance: Detective Gaskill (a man) and Detective...

Red Hair-ingAndy is the red-haired man who Rachel thinks is trying to hurt her, though he's really trying to help her, reminding us once again that Rachel is a terrible judge of character. Andy was...

Mini BossMartin Miles is only mentioned once, along with Rachel's former co-workers Sasha and Harriet. They appear to show us Rachel's embarrassment over losing her job, which she lost because of h...