Really enjoyed this lighthearted read. Although some serious subjects were touched on, particularly resonant was the role of women in marriage and as a mother, this was wrapped up in a enjoyable story of a chance meeting of two women, both disliking their husbands, who agreed that they would murder the others partners. But all was not as it seems, people arent as first appear it seems...the story kept me entertained and I read it over a few nights.

I just couldn't take to this book, I was so disappointed because I loved the sound of it.But when I started to read it I found it difficult to get into.Not for me I am afraid.

If you read The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig you'll recognise the themes in this novel - riches (or comparative riches) to rags/London to Cornwall/marital problems or divorce/realising how people in low paid insecure jobs feel and live.

It is a well-told story, with interesting characters and the narrative keeps you hooked - I pretty much read it in a single sitting on a train journey. But overall I enjoyed it less because it was so similar to The Lie of the Land, and both really hammer home the difference between those who have comfortable incomes and lives, and those who work for pennies and never have enough of anything. The horrors of divorce are also dealt with very convincingly and the nod to other stories (I won't give any spoilers) without completely following the same route, is interesting.

Hannah is on the train to Cornwall to see her mother who is dying. She meets Jinni on the train and their conversations about their lives steadily deepen. It ends up with a plan for them to kill the other one's husband. Given there is no connection between them it should be a perfect crime. I'm giving nothing much away here as this is the first chapter of the book. However it certainly caught my attention and had the promise of an interesting/intriguing story.

The book follows Hannah's life after the meeting and manages to get in a fair bit of her back story too. Having been to university she goes into advertising. The feel of her time there was interesting even more so when you find out that the author followed that path! A failing marriage among other things leads to a downwards path. The marriage - now heading for divorce - is the reason that Hannah was interested in the pact made on the train. However this book is multifaceted. It works on a number of levels. I did feel this may have slowed down the narrative at times. Nevertheless I became increasingly interested in knowing just what the outcome might be.

I enjoyed the characters in this book. There are not many main characters but they work well. Hannah particularly is good as is Stan. The more minor ones do their job's well enough too. Cornwall itself is a real dimension in this tale. There is a real feel of the place - community and family etc. Equally the book is political/environmental at times with an emphasis on Cornwall.

While this is an edgy story with some tension there is another strong theme running here. This is about relationships going wrong and the bitterness that this can leave behind.
It's a strange combination of genres in some ways this. It is a book about plotting murder, the downward spiral of relationships, a social commentary on regions and something almost chic lit too. Maybe this is too many genres in one book however I still enjoyed it!

Hannah is on her way home on the London to Penzance train to her native Cornwall where her Mother is dying , Being overwhelmed by the heat she is grateful to be invited into the first class carriage by a good Samaritan , a very smart and attractive woman called Jinni. Hannah is separated from her husband Jake and struggles to feed herself and young daughter Maisy . Hannah and Jinni compare stories and agree to murder each other's badly-behaving husbands. Hardly original but from what I'd heard about this book in the media I was looking forward to a thrilling modern take on Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers On A Train" . Ms Highsmith's classic book puts a lot of modern thrillers in the shade and sadly that includes this one. Most of the book is about Hannah's part of the deal and I didn't find it at all convincing that she'd even agree to such a thing,let alone be the kind of person capable of carrying it out. The conversation on the train between the 2 women on the train is only sketchily told and from what we learn about Hannah, not least her hesitation at saving a friend from a potentially fatal attack at one point in the book I really couldn't see her as someone who would even contemplate cold-blooded murder let alone carry it out.
I found the book frustrating as for a thriller there aren't many thrills and it often wanders into characters having big debates about Brexit ,the merits of computer games versus book (twice with 2 different pairs of characters using the same language) and throughout the book Cornish nationalist sentiments. Having lived in Cornwall for several years and having relatives that still do I didn't recognise a lot of the assertions from various characters, they're very much minority views even in the County .
The Golden Rule is an easy read but I felt a wasted opportunity and a disappointment after all the press hype of it being one to look out for in 2020 in so many lists. Amanda Craig is known for the "state of the nation" style of her books ,which is fine but it takes over here from the core story and is at least as much social commentary as thriller.
Thanks to Amanda Craig, Little Brown Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This is the first novel I have read by Amanda Craig and I can fully understand why her work is so popular.

This is an impeccably plotted and beautifully written story about a young woman in Hannah who finally throws off the shackles of an abusive marriage, enters into a bizarre mutual homicide pact with a mysterious woman on a train to kill each other's appalling husbands.

Everything is not quite as it seems and there are several twists and turns before Hannah's fortunes deservedly turn for the better and she finds herself and happiness.

This is a thriller and an acute portrayal of how marriages go bad and the torment, hardship and cruelty that divorce can bring.

Most of all it is a love story and not just that between Hannah and her new partner despite the unfortunate start they get off to and the long gestation period of their relationship - no more spoilers to be provided - but it is a love of Cornwall, its splendours and pure beauty and the sense of community it engenders amongst its residents.

This is ultimately a book that warms the heart and raises the spirits and I highly recommend it.

#TheGoldenRule #NetGalley
A good story with a good storytelling.
When Hannah is invited into the First-Class carriage of the London to Penzance train by Jinni, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, Hannah once escaped Cornwall to go to university. But once she married Jake and had his child, her dreams were crushed into bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for Eve, rich and childless, and Hannah has been surviving by becoming a cleaner in London. Jinni is equally angry and bitter, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them?But when Hannah goes to Jinni's husband's home the next night, she finds Stan, a huge, hairy, ugly drunk who has his own problems - not least the care of a half-ruined house and garden. He claims Jinni is a very different person to the one who has persuaded Hannah to commit a terrible crime. Who is telling the truth - and who is the real victim?
This book gripped me from second chapter. I just love it.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for giving me an advance copy.