The Girl on the Train

I rate books based on their quality compared to genre standards. This is a murder mystery and a pretty typical one. The character entanglements are also pretty typical of the genre. However, the way the story is told is absolutely unique. It sold me on the whole novel.
The characters are all pretty depressing. The women get stronger and more appealing by the end. The police look like morons and bullies through most of the novel. The men are not very nice. Although the women gain strength by the end. There is a large part of the novel that they are just whiny and annoying.
I was prepared for that going into it because of the reviews I read on here. I might have liked the novel a lot less if I hadn't known that. There end sequence is fast paced and well written. That and the strength shown at the end by the three women definitely pushed my review one star higher. The other 3 are from pure enjoyment of the structure and setting.