Tunnel Vision (book)

Summary

The novel opens with the protagonist, Andy, standing outside of Morden tube station at 5 o'clock in the morning. He recounts the events of the previous night; while out drinking with his friend Rolf, the two men make a bet that Andy can complete the Tube Challenge, visiting every single station of the London Underground in a single day. He bets such things as his passport, his keys and his honeymoon tickets to Antigua. When he returns to his apartment, his fiancée Rachel quickly realizes that he has been drinking, and Andy is forced to admit that he has placed this bet; although he does not disclose to Rachel exactly what he has bet, she is furious, and an argument ensues. Andy awakes the next day to find that Rachel is not in the couple's bed.

When Andy boards his first train of the day on the Northern line, he notices that multiple people are staring at him; he looks in a window to find that Rachel has written the word "TWAT" on his forehead in lipstick. While he is attempting to remove all traces, a homeless man named Brian, one of the people staring at him before, comes to sit next to him. After a brief conversation, Andy finds out that Brian is going to the same place as him, Epping; Andy attempts to lose him at Tottenham Court Road, to no avail, and later tries to leave his company at Epping, which also does not work. On their journey back into central London, the pair encounter the first hindrance to their journey, when a Filipino man pulls the emergency stop lever at Stratford after failing to get off the train.

During their journey to Upminster, Brian challenges Andy to name something interesting about the District line, to which he responds by telling the story of how he met Rachel on the line, at Kensington (Olympia) station. When the two reach Upminster, their entry to the station is delayed by several minutes; upon disembarking the train, Andy finds his credit card, hidden in an envelope, along with a clue to the whereabouts of his next lost item, and the two men learn that District line service is suspended between the station and Dagenham East. Initially pessimistic about the final outcome of the challenge following the revelation, Brian learns that Network Rail services run from the station, which they utilize to go to Fenchurch Street and continue their journey. Upon arrival at Tower Hill, Andy collides with another passenger at the entrance to the station, and later passes out on the train; he unsuccessfully attempts to make a phone call to Rachel at King's Cross.

Meanwhile, Rachel is in a dress shop in Golders Green to collect her wedding dress, when she notices Rolf momentarily glancing at her as he passes by. She runs out the shop to confront him, having received a phone call from him earlier; he hints at Andy's whereabouts, but will not reveal any further details. Later, she meets her friend Sophie for lunch at a café in Finchley; their conversation is interrupted by an unknown man in a hurry to obtain sandwiches, implied to be Brian.

Andy and Brian arrive at Cockfosters, where Rolf's clue told them to go; Andy climbs on the buffers, also something Rolf's clue hinted at, when he is stopped by the driver of the train. The station supervisor scolds him, before revealing that he has the envelope Andy was looking for containing his keys, which Andy receives. Rolf's next clue is vague, but hints at two Piccadilly line carriages. Andy falls asleep on the train shortly after it leaves Cockfosters, leading him to miss a key connection at Piccadilly Circus. To solve the mystery of Rolf's note, Andy calls Paul, a friend of his working in Northfields Piccadilly line depot, who reveals that Andy's two carriages will be in service very soon. Meanwhile, Rachel receives an ominous and threatening phone call from Rolf, who warns Rachel not to marry Andy, while also subtly hinting at the circumstances under which his bet took place, before suddenly hanging up.

Andy and Brian encounter further delays; their District line train at Bayswater is suspended due to a door being broken by one of the passengers, leading to a total cancellation on the Edgware Road branch, while the Central line westbound is suspended due to a person under a train at Marble Arch. Although they find Andy's envelope at Green Park, their luck worsens when their train suddenly derails just before South Kensington. They eventually catch the District line to their intended destination of Hammersmith. While this is happening, Rachel leaves a voice message to Rolf blackmailing him into not calling her again by revealing that she recorded their earlier conversation.

The next part of the journey for Andy and Brian continues fairly trouble-free, up until reaching Northwick Park, wherein Brian gets the two men lost after they disembark to change for Kenton station. Finding a public phone booth, Andy calls Rachel, who guides them to the station. From that point, their journey continues without any major interruptions.

At Turnham Green, Andy learns that the train they need is due to be taken out of service due to a stag night prank wherein a man, Jim, has been stripped of his clothes and handcuffed to an armrest. The train continues due to the station supervisor being knocked out before he can take it out. Though it seems they missed the last eastbound train, Bob, an employee at the station and friend of Rolf, hands the two men their envelope and reveals that the train they were just on is the last train. They quickly run to it, but realise that Jim will delay them. The train halts at Kew Gardens due to someone - Jim - pulling the emergency handle, though Andy and Brian quickly shrug this off and the train carries on. The three men celebrate Andy and Brian's "victory".

To liven up the journey a bit, Jim suggests the three men play a game; after Mornington Crescent is suggested, Andy realises that he has missed the tube station of the same name, due to his Tube map being a version from 1997 wherein the station is crossed out due to it being closed. He also cannot retrieve his last envelope at Monument tube station; the instructions in Rolf's last note said to meet him at Monument station eastbound platform for it, however when the train reaches the station, he is not there. Brian goes on to Mornington Crescent, while Andy travels to Waterloo.

At Waterloo International, Andy is under intense time pressure to catch a special one-off Eurostar service at 1:00am, for which Rachel is already at the platform. Despite his best efforts to reach the station in time, hampered by a dispute with a ticket inspector due to Andy not having his tickets, Andy misses the train. However, it is revealed that Rachel opted to not get on it; the pair reconcile, and exit the station to catch a cab to find alternate methods of reaching Paris.

In an epilogue, Brian visit's Rolf's apartment and retrieves Andy's Eurostar tickets from there. He settles for the night outside a shop in Kilburn, where he symbolically crosses off Mornington Crescent station on Andy's tube map before falling asleep.