As the complex tale of all things bouncing around the tortured mind of Rachel began to unfold under the direction on Tate Taylor, I squirmed. Would I be able to withstand 112 minutes this slow?

Unlike my dear wife Karen next to me for the 7:10 p.m. Friday show in the solidly filled Regal Cinemas big theater in Syracuse suburban mall Shoppingtown, I’d not read the Paula Hawkins novel on which The Girl on the Train was based. So I hunkered down and watched the lovely Hudson Valley houses roll by as she stared from her window seat on that commuter rail, pieced together Rachel’s dreamy – nay, spacey – narration about the pretty woman who lived in one particular, went back and forth on the terrible things that led to the dissolution of her marriage in a home on that very street.

This was not a well woman. Played well by Emily Blunt, I realized.

Cut to the blonde, nanny Megan, for another blonde, mom and wife Ann. Yikes, actresses Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson, relative unknowns to me, looked very much alike, I thought, filing their pieces and – surprise – relationship to Rachel’s ex Tom – into the overall puzzle.

Yeah, the cuts back and forth in the timeline were still a bit jarring.

But, wow, could these three women act. And the story, written for screen by Erin Cressida Wilson, had me, with Rachel’s relationship to Tom, Megan’s to her husband Scott as well as the psychiatrist who he drives her to visit. Actors Justin Theroux, Luke Evans are Edgar Ramirez play these three men to the mercurial hilt, too.

So now I was squirming from trying to figure out who did what to whom.

Megan turns up missing. Rachel spins deeper into her abyss. Anna and Tom are affected and affect it all.

No spoilers here, because if you haven’t read the book, the twists and turns are too good to ruin.

Think along the lines of the tumult caused before the conclusion in Gone Girl.

I exhaled deeply before we walked out. I put the novel on my to-read list. I’ll post about which I like better.

If you’re familiar with these actors and actresses, what are their good roles you like previously, and why? What other mysteries like this are your favorites, and why? What books are on your to-read list, and why?