Craig “Mac” McKenzie Character Analysis in The Girl on the Train

Mac was Megan’s first love and a friend of her older brother Ben. Megan and Mac had child a together, Libby, who died just a few months into her short life. Several years older than Megan, Mac took in the runaway girl when she was just 16, and the two quickly began a relationship. When Megan got pregnant, she and Mac reluctantly welcomed the child—but after a disaster in which Libby perished under Megan’s watch, Mac left abruptly after helping Megan bury the baby’s corpse. Megan never saw or heard from Mac again. Authorities investigate him as a possible suspect in Megan’s murder but learn that he died years ago.

Craig “Mac” McKenzie Character Timeline in The Girl on the Train

The timeline below shows where the character Craig “Mac” McKenzie appears in The Girl on the Train. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...her past—particularly what happened to her years ago when she was with a man named Mac, a friend of her Ben’s. Megan admits to feeling relief that Abdic can never tell... (full context)

Gaslighting, Memory, Repression, and the Self Theme Icon

In therapy, Megan tells Kamal about how she met Mac while living in Ipswich as a runaway after Ben’s death. She was just 15, and... (full context)

...tabs on her—and the fight he picked when he realized she’d been researching someone named Craig McKenzie on the internet. Kamal warned her that Scott’s behavior was tantamount to emotional abuse. Megan... (full context)

Megan tells Kamal about moving into Mac’s isolated cottage near the sea. Days would go by without the two of them seeing... (full context)

One day, when Libby was just a few months old, Megan and Mac got into a horrible fight. Mac left the house. Megan was freezing in the unheated... (full context)

...asks her to finish her story. Megan picks up where she left off and describes Mac coming home to find her still in the bath. When he turned the light on,... (full context)

...says, she packed her things and left the cottage in the woods. She never saw Mac again, and she never returned. Megan admits that she believes Mac is dead—she has a... (full context)