Murder on the Christmas Express
Author: Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 341
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★1/2
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 341
Format: Hardback
My Rating ★★1/2
Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.
In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again.
Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again?
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me out a copy of the book for Christmas!
Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.
In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again.
Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again?
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me out a copy of the book for Christmas!
My thoughts:
I decided to read this mainly because the title and cover made me think it would be a fun read to curl up with on Christmas Eve. I was expecting a Christmas mystery, but this story also deals with heavy topics in a lot of detail.
Murder on the Christmas Express has been marketed as a nod to the queen of crime, featuring murders on a train, locked rooms, evil men, and a retired police officer needing to get home to her daughter.
The action takes place on a sleeper train in the wilds of Scotland. When the train finds itself stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere it transpires that this is to be the least of the worries of the people on board. It seems that there is a killer on the train who is dispatching the passengers one by one. Fortunately, there is a retired detective on board who can investigate the crimes. However, in this instance it is not Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, but Roz Parker.
I found it hard to anchor feelings for the characters because they all seemed to play support to Roz. Another issue with the book is that none of the characters come across as particularly likeable; they don't really develop any kind of personality other than long descriptions of what they're doing or obsessing about. This isn't helped by unnecessarily long descriptions of how a character uses his vape pen, or eats a sweet. In the first part of the book, the detective, Roz, is trying to get to Scotland to be with her daughter who has gone into labour. Roz feels that she's failing her daughter by not being there.
And having chapters written from the killer's perspective really didn't work for me. For instance, '…The killer watched the victim across the station. The killer felt nervous. They drank their coffee. The killer knew they must kill...'
My main problem with this book is that it's very tonally confused. I feel this has been massively mis-branded as a cosy murder mystery on a train. But within the first twenty or so pages we've lurched from domestic abuse to light-hearted comments about food on train journeys, to inserting train-related puns all over the place, to the main character trying to suppress flashbacks to serious sexual assault. The cover and the marketing feel very misleading, and this is absolutely not a cosy festive mystery. The book handles some heavy topics, like sexual assault, rape, domestic violence. I believe trigger warnings should have been included.
I was disappointed to find myself reading about things like rape and domestic abuse when I thought I was going to get a fun little festive murder mystery. I felt the scenes of sexual abuse and domestic violence also very much took away from the mystery at the heart of the novel, and at times I found myself getting easily distracted or just wanting to put the book aside for a little while.
Sadly, the book itself is also littered with all kinds of mistakes, such as typos and punctuation errors, some of which even change the meaning of the narrative. The worst one for me, during what is supposed to be a profound, heartfelt discussion between two characters: “Not all who abuse go on to be abusers.” For me, many of the errors lessened the quality of the writing and made the story feel rushed and careless. I’m convinced a more thorough proof reading towards the end would have made a big difference to the overall enjoyment of the book.
Yes, it was engaging, but I’d really hoped Murder on the Christmas Express would feel more festive. Be advised this is not a cosy mystery read.
Overall reaction:
I decided to read this mainly because the title and cover made me think it would be a fun read to curl up with on Christmas Eve. I was expecting a Christmas mystery, but this story also deals with heavy topics in a lot of detail.
Murder on the Christmas Express has been marketed as a nod to the queen of crime, featuring murders on a train, locked rooms, evil men, and a retired police officer needing to get home to her daughter.
The action takes place on a sleeper train in the wilds of Scotland. When the train finds itself stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere it transpires that this is to be the least of the worries of the people on board. It seems that there is a killer on the train who is dispatching the passengers one by one. Fortunately, there is a retired detective on board who can investigate the crimes. However, in this instance it is not Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, but Roz Parker.
I found it hard to anchor feelings for the characters because they all seemed to play support to Roz. Another issue with the book is that none of the characters come across as particularly likeable; they don't really develop any kind of personality other than long descriptions of what they're doing or obsessing about. This isn't helped by unnecessarily long descriptions of how a character uses his vape pen, or eats a sweet. In the first part of the book, the detective, Roz, is trying to get to Scotland to be with her daughter who has gone into labour. Roz feels that she's failing her daughter by not being there.
And having chapters written from the killer's perspective really didn't work for me. For instance, '…The killer watched the victim across the station. The killer felt nervous. They drank their coffee. The killer knew they must kill...'
My main problem with this book is that it's very tonally confused. I feel this has been massively mis-branded as a cosy murder mystery on a train. But within the first twenty or so pages we've lurched from domestic abuse to light-hearted comments about food on train journeys, to inserting train-related puns all over the place, to the main character trying to suppress flashbacks to serious sexual assault. The cover and the marketing feel very misleading, and this is absolutely not a cosy festive mystery. The book handles some heavy topics, like sexual assault, rape, domestic violence. I believe trigger warnings should have been included.
I was disappointed to find myself reading about things like rape and domestic abuse when I thought I was going to get a fun little festive murder mystery. I felt the scenes of sexual abuse and domestic violence also very much took away from the mystery at the heart of the novel, and at times I found myself getting easily distracted or just wanting to put the book aside for a little while.
Sadly, the book itself is also littered with all kinds of mistakes, such as typos and punctuation errors, some of which even change the meaning of the narrative. The worst one for me, during what is supposed to be a profound, heartfelt discussion between two characters: “Not all who abuse go on to be abusers.” For me, many of the errors lessened the quality of the writing and made the story feel rushed and careless. I’m convinced a more thorough proof reading towards the end would have made a big difference to the overall enjoyment of the book.
Yes, it was engaging, but I’d really hoped Murder on the Christmas Express would feel more festive. Be advised this is not a cosy mystery read.
Overall reaction: