The Passengers

By: John Marrs

Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Roy McMillan, Tom Bateman, Shaheen Khan, Kristin Atherton, Patience Tomlinson

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.”

Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.

From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save? ...And who should we kill first?"

Read by Clare Corbett, Roy McMillan, Tom Bateman, Shaheen Khan, Kristin Atherton, and Patience Tomlinson

©2019 John Marrs (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A fast-paced thriller that offers a discourse on morality and ethics…Marrs excels at thrilling readers by creating a real sense of tension and delivering a believeable, harsh criticism of modern society through this dark and entertaining story. Driving…will never feel quite the same.” (LA Times)

"One can almost hear the Hollywood music in the background as the action unfolds; the plot twists are truly gripping…Summer blockbuster entertainment at its best. All that's missing is a slo-mo pre-disaster montage.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“I absolutely loved it. It sucked me right in and kept me gripped right until the end. With some real jaw dropping moments, it was an edge of your seat read.” (Claire Allen, USA Today best-selling author of Her Name is Rose)

loved it!

This is the 3rd John Mars book I have read, all in the last few months. And, it is the 3rd time I have stopped all else I could to keep reading.

Really good

This is my first book by this author but not my last! Enjoyed this one and already have added a few others by him to my TBR list. Highly recommend him to readers and listeners!

Fun and unique

I really enjoyed listening to this book. I liked it much better than “The One”. The narrators in this book are on point. I appreciated the use of multiple actors for the voices. The cars in the story are not too far from reality which makes this an even better read. Highly recommend!

Second time- awesome novel

I just listened to this title for the second time (first a few years ago). It is a fantastic story. The narration is spot on and the character development is wonderful. Love everything I have read by Marrs!

Good one!

I was so happy to get in to something different after several ho hum listens, It was science fiction, yet not. Autonomous cars are coming and hacking could happen. I can see the social media involvement as depicted also. All the narrators were great and the characters interesting. I re listened to the first 5 chapters to review how it all began for each passenger. Especially Claire's story which chronicled all the steps she had taken that morning. Later her secrets, as with the others was revealed and it all made sense. Will seek out more by this author.

Black mirror

If you liked black mirror the show u will enjoy this one! Finished in a day

Unique original and scarily possible

This is not necessarily a genre I would choose BUT…
So glad I did - enjoyed every minute - and will probably listen again in the very near future

I found the story line to be interesting

I would recommend this book. I found the story line to be very interesting and I actually did not see the ending playing out the way it did. I am usually pretty good on predicting it.

Another interesting one

This was the Fifth one I've read from him. Like all of them they have some commentary on modern culture.

There was a nod in there to the next book he'd write. It was definitely interesting and I disagree completely with the first couple reviews I saw.

For one he didn't spend the second half of the book following up on them. I checked and it was only the last 2 hours. The fact that there was one guy that was really unlikable doesn't effect the story as a whole. And if people worried about their books being eventually out of date nobody would write anything.I think that guy just likes to write bad reviews.

And secondly, the British have an accent. Everyone knows that so why would you complain how they pronounced Jude. It's a ridiculous thing to knock the book for. If you slow down the speed it's almost unnoticeable. It never bothered me but 90% of what I buy has a UK or European narrator.

If you like his other books you'll enjoy this. I will say the end was a little rushed and a lot to take in. He did that in a few others too. I would of done it a little differently but then again I'm not an author. It was worth a credit.

WOW! What a book!!

I couldn’t put this book down. John Marrs is exceptional at building characters and integrating them into the story line. By far one of the best books I’ve listened to.