British author Paula Hawkins

About Paula Hawkins : - born 26 August 1972) is a British author, best known for her 2015 novel The Girl on the Train.

Hawkins was born and raised in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Her father was an economics professor and financial journalist. She moved to London in 1989 at the age of 17, and later studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. She worked as a journalist for The Times, reporting on business. She then worked for a number of publications on a freelance basis, and wrote a financial advice book for women, The Money Goddess.

Around 2009 Hawkins began to write romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver, writing four novels including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista. She did not achieve commercial breakthrough until she challenged herself to write a darker, more serious story. Her best-selling novel of 2015 The Girl on the Train, was a complex thriller with themes of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse.The novel took her 6 months writing full-time to complete at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father to be able to complete it. She lives in South London.

Best Novels : -  

The Girl on the Train : - The Girl on the Train (2015) is a psychological thriller novel by British author Paula Hawkins.The novel debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list (combined print and e-book) dated February 1, 2015, and remained in the top position for 13 consecutive weeks, until April 2015. In January 2016 it became the No.1 bestseller again for two weeks. Many reviews referred to the book as "the next Gone Girl", a popular 2012 novel.

By early March 2015, the novel had sold over 1 million copies, and 1.5 million by April. It has occupied the number one spot of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, the longest any book has ever held the top spot. By early August 2015, the book had sold more than 3 million copies in the US alone.

The film rights were acquired by DreamWorks Pictures in 2014 for Marc Platt Productions. The adaptation, starring Emily Blunt and directed by Tate Taylor, is scheduled for release on 7 October 2016.

Plot Summery  : - The story is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of three women: Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel Watson is a 32-year-old alcoholic reeling from the dissolution of her marriage to Tom, who left her for another woman. Rachel's drinking has caused her to lose her job; she frequently binges and has blackouts. Very frequently, while drunk, she harasses Tom by phone and sometimes even in person, though has little or no memory of these acts once she sobers up. Tom is now married to, and has a daughter with, his former mistress Anna – a situation that fuels Rachel's self-destructive tendencies, as it was her inability to conceive a child that began her spiral into alcoholism. Concealing her unemployment from her flatmate, Rachel follows her old routine of taking the train to London every day, with her train route taking her past her old house, which is now occupied by her husband, the woman he cheated on Rachel with, and their baby. She also begins compulsively watching an attractive couple who lives a few houses away from Tom, fantasizing about their perfect life together. Rachel has never met them and has no idea that their life is far from perfect, and that the woman, Megan Hipwell, helps Anna care for her child. Megan outwardly seems perfect to Rachel—beautiful, happy, and married to a handsome, devoted man. However, she has a troubled past that she conceals from everyone who knows her, and this gives her severe insomnia. She escapes from her troubles by taking a series of lovers, while she secretly finds her life to be boring and shallow. She has sought help coping with her problems by seeing a therapist, Dr. Kamal Abdic, who she would like to seduce. Eventually, she reveals to him a dark secret she has never confided to anyone before.

Anna Watson is a young, beautiful woman who is very much in love with her husband, Tom Watson, Rachel's ex-husband. Anna is deliriously happy as a stay-at-home mom to their young daughter, Evie. While at first, she enjoyed the idea of parading in front of Rachel her conquest of Tom, as a way to show that he picked her over Rachel, she eventually becomes furious at Rachel's harassment of her and her family, and wants to move from Rachel's former house, and report Rachel's stalking to the police. She particularly dread's Rachel's presence because one day, Rachel entered their home, picked up their baby, and walked outside with her. She sees Rachel as a threat to her family and home.

One day, Rachel is stunned to see Megan kissing a man other than her husband. The next day, after a night of heavy drinking, Rachel awakens to find herself bloody and injured, with no memories of the night before, but certain that she has done something she will regret. Soon, she learns that one of the top stories of the day is that Megan is missing. Rachel is questioned by the police after Anna reports having seen her staggering around drunk in the area the night of Megan's disappearance. Rachel starts to become inappropriately interested in the missing persons case. She contacts the police to tell them she thinks Megan was having an affair because she was obsessively watching her every morning and evening from the train, and then contacts Megan's husband, Scott. She lies and tells Scott that they were friends, and also tells him her thoughts about the affair. Rachel learns that the man she saw kissing Megan the day she disappeared was Dr. Abdic.

Rachel contacts Dr. Abdic, lying about her true identity and background, as part of a ruse to get close to him and learn more about him. She makes a therapy appointment with him, ostensibly to see if he can help her to recall the events that happened during her blackout the night of the disappearance. While Dr. Abdic suspects nothing, Rachel begins to gain insights into her life by speaking with him, inadvertently benefiting from her therapy. Her connections to Scott and Kamal, though built on lies, make her feel more important. She ends up not drinking for several days at a time, but always relapses. Meanwhile, she continues to call, visit, and harass her ex-husband and his new family. Then, Megan's body is found and she is revealed to have been pregnant, and that the fetus was fathered by neither Scott nor Abdic. As Scott discovers Rachel's lies and lashes out at her, her memories of the night of the incident become clearer. Rachel remembers seeing Megan get into Tom's car. At the same time, Anna discovers that Tom and Megan were having an affair. These associations enable her to trust her own memories more, and she realizes that many of the crazy things Tom told her she did while drunk, but that she doesn't remember doing, were not actually done by her. He has been lying to her about her behavior for years, which has affected her belief in herself and made her question her sanity. Armed with her realization that Tom has manipulated and lied to her all along, and that he must have been the one to kill Megan, Rachel warns Anna. When Anna confronts him, Tom confesses to murdering Megan after she threatened to ruin his life by revealing that he impregnated her. Anna is cowed in fear of her daughter's safety; and, though Tom tries to beat and intimidate Rachel into keeping silent, she defies him and fights back. Knowing he is about to kill her, Rachel stabs Tom in the neck with a corkscrew. Anna helps Rachel make sure that he dies from the wound. When the police arrive, they coordinate their stories to support their actions having been in self-defence.

The Money Goddess  : - 

The Complete Financial Makeover.

Plot Summery : -  Armed with a bit of knowledge, women tend to be very good with money...but mention the word 'pensions' to most and brows quickly start to furrow with confusion. The Money Goddess is a fun but also incredibly informative personal finance guide tailored specifically to the needs of women. The book features a fictional group of girlfriends who experience all the ups and downs of financial life, interwoven with thoroughly researched, expert advice on subjects ranging from debt to investing, buying a house, pensions, going on maternity leave and much more. Whether you're just hopeless with money, or not so bad but haven't changed your building society since they gave you a Paddington Bear for opening an account, this is the perfect companion for any woman of any age. It's never too early or late to make sure you're in the know when it comes to money.