Jae Watson - Journey

review by showhost Sept 09.
I read this book after a high paced high-octane book by Simon Kernick.
This was a lot slower and I wondered if I would keep with it but I did and enjoyed it, I had to find out who done it or if it was suicide.

The Journey is about two girls, Sarah and Marianne, both in their 20’s who meet in strange circumstances. Marianne heard screams through a window and went to investigate. As Marianne leaned through the window, she saw Sarah with a male with his head cut open, unconscious. Sarah claimed the man tried to rape her and asked Marianne to help move him. Sarah said she was calling for help but did she really call an ambulance? They become firm friends.

The encounter between the two girls occurs at the time of the London bombings when the city is torn apart by fear and tension and life seems uncertain. Also, Marianne was on the rebound from a long relationship. They decide to go travelling together. The journey takes them from London to India to the Ganges, specifically Varanasi, although, in a twist of fate, the friends are plunged into a terrorist attack in Delhi and witness the horrors they think they have left behind.

Marianne finds it hard to trust he friend Sarah, she is more vulnerable than she realizes after her mother’s abandonment of her as a child and this affects her ability to make and sustain relationships. Sarah, in comparison is flighty and a free spirit, or so it seems to Marianne. They encounter relationships on the way and Marianne realizes how little she knows of Sarah.

They are chased by imposter police and a hotel owner who is running an illegal brewery. These are the murder suspects on Mariannes list when Sarah’s body is fished out of the Ganges in the Holy City of Varanasi.

Sarah it seems, was in to drugs, hard drugs, diamorphine, Heroin, in fact anything and from anywhere. Yet Marianne can’t believe that Sarah was a drug addict.
Following Sara’s death, her mother arrives with private detective Dave, in tow.

And so begins the murder mystery, who done it and why?


I didn’t think I would like this book but I did. I had to find out who did it. It was slow but it slowly drew me in, (although I could skip paragraphs especially if they were reciting some extract from some deep religious belief, without losing the plot). I liked the travelogue aspect of the story as it took you through the streets of India.