I once took a train from Boston to Chicago. Twenty-three hours. Twenty-three hours! I had my own little sleeping compartment, which I had envisioned as opulent and chic and very North by Northwest.
And, for about four hours, the whole thing was fabulous. Cozy, glamorous, speedy and super fun. My imagination was captured by the gorgeous landscape and the mysterious passengers and the adventure of being in the well-appointed dining car.
But then, train reality hit.
We were all on the train.
We could not get off.
There were people in train uniforms, and there were passengers. But who was who, and why were they there, and what if something went wrong? And there was utterly absolutely no escape. And many, many, many places to hide.
And once the train is underway, there is no way for anybody else to come aboard, and certainly no way, except one that would probably be extremely painful, to get off.
Unless you are like Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and can have a sword fight along the tops of the moving train cars, you’re inside, and that’s all there is.
Which is why, of course, a murder mystery set on a train is absolute perfection. It is a locked room mystery, but with the tantalizing addition of being a moving locked room. And out of the passengers’ control. Irresistible.
I remember, profoundly, how formative Murder on the Orient Express was to me. I probably read it when I was 13, and marveled at what was my first Agatha Christie. How did she figure out that brilliant but fair ending? And she made it an ultra-locked room by having the train stranded in a blizzard.
Strangers on a Train, with its diabolical “crisscross,” has haunted me ever since I saw it. It could work, couldn’t it? And who doesn’t remember that terrific scene in the movie The Lady Vanishes — based on The Wheel Spins (1936) by Welsh author Ethel Lina White — where Miss Frey has written her name on the window, and then it appears in the condensation? I applaud that every time.
Just like I applaud these brilliant contemporary authors who pay homage to those classics with their own ovation-worthy twists.
Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill
Five Found Dead wears the homage to Murder on the Orient Express with infinite grace and affection. This brilliant meta-fiction takes place in contemporary times and, audaciously, on the actual Orient Express. A crime fiction author is the main character — and yes, it’s about murder on a train. And so is the book he’s writing. While the body count is rising, even the characters are aware they are inhabiting Christie’s world, and Gentill lets us know how old stories can be relevant in a new world, and even inspirational.
With a Vengeance by Riley Sager
This kinda-historical thriller takes us back to the 1950s, where the main character Anna has invited a group of very specific people to join her on a luxury train for a nonstop overnight ride to Chicago. The reader knows these are people she loathes, people who ruined her life and people she means to bring to justice. And then — in a trademark Sager twist, Anna learns that in order to destroy her enemies, she first must save them.
The Main Character by Jaclyn Goldis
It’s hilarious how many novelists have decided that putting an author on the train is the best idea. It’s super-double-meta, because of course, putting an author on a train will instantly put them in the mind of Agatha Christie, and as a result, everything seems dangerous and suspect. And if the writer is in search of their new plot, even better. And in this case, the writer is creating her own plot by inviting people to share the journey. Not only super meta, but super clever.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Such a ground-breaking book. The idea that someone who does what we have all done — looked out the window on a moving train — becomes an obsession with a certain house, and what might be going on inside. I remember when I read this, thinking how relatable it is — how we stare, mesmerized, at the world going by and forget that there are real people on the other side. Hawkins tells us what happens when we remember.
6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk
Did I mention claustrophobic? As the description of this book says, no Wi-Fi, no distractions, no way out. And here we have the irony of the scenic train trip as a gift from a supportive husband — a one-day writing retreat for an author trying to follow up on her best-selling debut. What could go wrong in the first-class car? It’s a murder mystery on a train, that’s what. Sure enough, the 6:40 train breaks down in the middle of the frozen Canadian woods. The passenger list is (terrifyingly) dwindling. And in this wonderful thriller, the fictional author’s name is even Agatha!
Whistle by Linwood Barclay
What if, instead of the person travelling on the train, the train travels to the person? In this creepy thriller, the talented Linwood Barclay goes Stephen King on us, with what seem to be creepy model train sets that can affect people’s lives in the most unpleasant of ways. This high-concept horror story will have you looking at your kids’ toys in a completely different way.
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
So funny, and so witty, and so wryly knowing. The Australian Mystery Writers Society has invited the authors — of course — to a crime writing festival aboard a storied train. When one of the writers is murdered, all the other authors turn into detectives. Or, suspects. Or both. It’s fun and full of Easter eggs and double meanings and hilarity.
What all of these books prove is that just like you would never accept an invitation to dinner in Cabot Cove — since you are clearly the next victim — you should never accept a train ticket from a mystery writer. Unless, of course, the train is on the page.
