A combination of Christmas and mystery is exactly what I was looking for in a holiday read - an escape from the typical romance and back to my roots of murder 😅

As a huge fan of locked room mysteries, I was really looking forward to this! As usual with these types of books, it takes me a bit to figure out the characters and how they will contribute to the story. Stuck in a train in a snowstorm, Detective Roz finds herself with a mystery to solve on her holiday as not one but two people wind up dead, and the murderer must be on board. Not having the resources of a typical detective team, this was an interesting story to see how Roz navigates this with skill alone. Not necessarily a fast paced thriller, but one that allows the reader time to think and process through the clues themselves!

I expected this to be a bit of a cozy mystery set on a train, and while it was a mystery on a train it definitely had more depth than I was anticipating for a holiday read. And a bit of a dark, unexpected theme. Maybe if I had gone in prepared for this I wouldn't have been so taken aback. Able to reframe expectations, I did find this one still to be intriguing and engaging throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this e-ARC. I am anticipating reading this soon and reviewing on my socials.

Former Met Detective Roz Parker is on the sleeper train from London to the Highlands, in hope of reaching her daughter before the snowstorm closes all traffic. They are somewhat estranged and now her daughter is in labor, the perfect time for a mother to be supportive—if only she can get to the hospital.

That hope dims to nothing when the train derails and there aren’t any crews who can come to the rescue anytime soon. The passengers are a mixed group, families, teens studying for a trivia contest, an influencer and her boyfriend/manager, and a couple of singles.

When a body turns up, it looks like Roz has one last case to solve. After all, by the time the police could arrive, all the evidence could be tainted. A second death follows and she begins to wonder who can be trusted, who can’t, who’s lying, and who’s innocent. Murder on a derailed train in a snowstorm is the modern equivalent of a locked room mystery, the hardest kind to solve. Is there anybody Roz can trust?

This is not just a “who dun it’ mystery but “did someone do it, if yes, how did they do it, and why” tale. While it seems to move slowly in parts, it’s because the passengers are stranded, there’s no internet, no forensics team, or help of any kind. If you’re looking for a mystery with more thriller vibes than a happy holiday story, this is the book for you.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I enjoyed a great deal about this book. I loved the concept; Roz is an interesting and capable lead; and Alexandra Benedict's writing kept me hooked from the very beginning. She's great at pacing and maintaining tension. That being said, given the obvious homage to Agatha Christie in the plot description, I was expecting this to be a modern cozy mystery. It hits many of the cozy characteristics, but I was unprepared for how sexual assault impacts this book. This was not the fun, light Christmas cozy I was expecting; it was an interesting mystery built upon assault and trauma that carries over and impacts several characters. Because I review cozy mysteries, I opted to not feature this one for professional review. I believe if this book had different marketing (perhaps something to denote the darker tones and themes of the mystery?) then I would have experienced it differently. It's a strong book, but I think readers should be prepared for the content.

Enjoyed the Christmas flair but definitely a book that’s best during the season! Enjoyed the older lead. Wish it had a character list. Holiday brain is real!

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train from London to the Highlands derails, along with the festive plans of its travelers. With the train buried in snow in the middle of nowhere, the passengers have only each other, and not all of them will reach their holiday celebrations.
As a killer tries to pick passengers off one by one, former Met Detective Roz Parker can't resist one last investigation, but murder in a locked room is a formidable puzzle for even the most seasoned investigator. As accusations begin to fly, the group of travelers fractures and unexpected alliances form. Can Roz find the culprit before anyone else is lost?
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for giving me an advance copy.

I picked this book because I thought it would be a nice seasonal mystery.. It ended up being a lot deeper than I thought and i didn't see the ending coming.. A train trip a few days before Christmas has some anxious travelers. When an influencer is found dead in her cabin the mood instantly changes on the trip and a former police officer has to solve the crime to make sure the train doesn't get help up and force her to miss her daughters delivery. There are some potential triggers in this book concerning mental and physical abuse.
When a second murder occurs the stakes get even higher as well as the danger..

Author Alexandra Benedict has made an avocation out of Christmastime murder and mayhem. I previously read Benedict’s so-so The Christmas Murder Game, and there’s another I haven’t read, The Christmas Jigsaw Murders. I’ve returned to read her latest Noël-themed mystery, Murder on the Christmas Express.

This time around, a retiring Met detective named Roz Parker and the other train passengers get stuck on a derailed train while heading to Scotland. Needless to say, there’s a murder. (It’s in the title, right? Plus the girl is killed even before the first chapter.)

Murder on the Christmas Express has the feel of a later book in a series, but I couldn’t find any previous entries. Which is a pity, as I would love to know more about Parker’s odd relationship with her lesbian daughter and about the other cases that Benedict alludes to.

It’s as if Benedict took J. Jefferson Farjeon’s excellent Mystery in White, and decided to riff on the original. Benedict’s writing has improved since The Christmas Murder Game, but there’s still some clunky writing and an denouement that defies belief on several counts. It's not bad, but I found myself flipping through the book to just get to the end. My advice? Read the 1937 original and skip this one.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an e-copy for an honest review.

This is an isolated close circle Mystery.
This was such a fun, Christmas read. A large group of characters all traveling on the train from England to Scotland on an overnight train. But a snowstorm has covered the rails and the train is stopped. Slowly people are dying or getting murdered. Our main character is a retired detective and with the help of another passenger starts investigating the deaths.

I loved this book, so fast paced, short chapters. You wanna fall in love with some characters do you wanna eat some characters and just love the setting.

Five stars all around for this book! I loved this book!! The characters were great and likeable. The mystery had me guessing throughout the book!

Passengers on a train get trapped (of course) with a murderer in their midst. Although I read this author's previous book and enjoyed it, this one didn't do it for me. The characters were obnoxious and unlikeable so you didn't really care if they were murdered, and there were quite a few dark themes in this book which seems like it was a "Christmas" story - but wasn't. This is one I would give a pass to. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Retired Met detective Roz is on the sleeper train to Scotland to spend the holidays with her daughter who is about to give birth. But when a popular reality tv star and influencer is murdered the train comes to a halt. When another murder is committed Roz can’t help but try and find the murderer. As the passengers seem to have links to one another the case is complicated and Roz is distracted by the updates about her daughter giving birth in the hospital. Will Roz be able to solve the mystery by the time the train gets to Scotland and her daughter?

This was a well written, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery that kept me reading and wanting to find out who the murderer was. I do wish it was a little more lighthearted, but enjoyed it nonetheless!

Like other reviews on Goodreads, this was not a cheery Christmas book. There was a lot that happened before the murder plot line really happened and it was not the Christmas mystery book I was really looking for this time of year. It was a little too dark for my liking.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to honestly review.

Happy to include this title in a holiday round-up highlighting seasonal-themed reads for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

I loved this! Such a cozy thriller. I love the holiday train vibes that harks back to an Agatha Christie type atmosphere.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I had such high hopes for this book but I was slightly disappointed.
I guess when reading the title I thought of Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express.

I enjoyed the first part of the book because I had the whodunnit in my mind but then I lost it. The mystery feeling was lost. I finished the book but felt like I wasted time.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Newly retired from the Met, Roz is on the sleeper from London to Fort George but sleep is going to be the least of her worries. Her pregnant daughter in Scotland is rushed to the hospital in distress and the survival of mother and baby are iffy. There is nothing that Roz can do. The train is derailed in the Highlands and there is not one, not two but three murders on a very lightly populated train. What is even more confusing for her is someone from her distant past is also on the train and whether that person means well or ill is uncertain.

There is quite the hodgepodge of little sub story lines to complicate the mystery. It tries very hard to be a modern take on Agatha Christie with varying results. It looks at the lifelong wounds from rape and abuse. It looks at the concept of celebrity in the internet world and the vacuous nature of that celebrity. It also has lots of woke things but not too annoying. I did almost give up at the start when the whole pronoun nonsense was used for the killer until I realized the author was using it so the reader did not twig to whether the killer was male, female or something else. I guess I am too old fashioned. When I read a book, I want to know who the characters are and the blurring of the lines is too much for my feeble brain.

There were good moments in the book and the story of being stranded in a snowstorm on a derailed train with a group of mismatched travellers held me. My favourite character, however, was the Maine Coon mix, Mousetache, who may not have solved the crimes but was the star of the show.

Four purrs and one paw up.

I very much enjoyed this book. Like others, I was surprised at the darkness in this, as I was also expecting something more on the cozier side, but it did not take long for the tone to be set. The story features a wide cast of characters and a terrible snow storm on Christmas eve. A seemingly genuine young internet influencer is found apparently murdered in her locked cabin, resulting in both a whodunit and HOW did they do it? Thank goodness there's a retired police investigator on board, although she really wants nothing less than being placed in such a position. Plus, she needs the train to get her to her daughter, who is having her first baby! There is also an unexpected (but not shoved in) romance, and some fun trivia. This was a great read!

This sounded like a book that I would enjoy - a modern day Agatha Christie type read! A sleeper train derails on Christmas Eve on the way to the Highlands. There aren't many passengers left on board by that time, but the ones that are find themselves with a serial killer amongst them!

I really enjoyed this and liked the main character, former Metropolitan Police Detective Roz Parker. She has just retired and is taking the sleeper home to get there in time for her new grandchild's birth. She is a likeable character, but she does have some personal issues from her past which keep rearing their ugly heads. The story twists and turns with the discovery of the death of one of the passengers and we see Parker trying to keep her head whilst investigating the deaths on the derailed train.

Whilst there wasn't many passengers on the train, it did feel like there were a lot of characters to keep track of and I struggled to remember who was who initially. It was a clever 'whodunit' however and I joined in with the former detective to try and work out who the killer was. It had a few surprises along the way and some red herrings and dead ends thrown in also. There were some parts however which I thought to be a little far-fetched, but was still enjoyable to read.

This was my first book by this author and I'm looking forward to reading the follow up book. Despite being set at Christmas, it isn't terribly festive (if you don't count all the snow!) but it is definitely a recommended holiday read!

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Murder on The Christmas Express is an engaging and dramatic Locked Room Mystery by Alexandra Benedict.
This story is set aboard a Sleeper Train, traveling from London to the Scottish Highlands, on Christmas Eve.

I have a thing for stories set on trains. It's one of my favorite set-ups and this story did not disappointment in that regard. I was a little nervous starting this one, since the overall rating seemed on the low-end for a newer release. I almost didn't pick it up because of that. I'm so glad I ignored the rating and gave it a go. It sure paid off for me.

This story mainly follows Roz Parker, a former Met Detective, who is about to become a Grandmother for the first time. She's traveling on the train to try to reach her pregnant daughter's side before Christmas. Unfortunately, due to a severe storm, the train schedules are a mess, with many routes cancelled. This Sleeper Train is the only way to get to the Highlands for the holiday.

Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.

That tagline sold me, and for the most part, I feel like this story delivered on that. It did give me what I was looking for. I'll admit, initially, the writing style did feel a little wonky. It took me a minute to get myself grounded in this author's style and to connect with the narrative voice.

I did end up enjoying Roz quite a bit. Her no-nonsense attitude drew me in. She's tough, but she's also at a turning point in her life and still grappling with some earlier trauma that's had a hold on her ever since. In that regard, I found her realistic and relatable.

We did get various other perspectives as well and some of those were a little strange. I did feel most connected when I was reading from Roz's perspective. The other passengers are quite a mix and it was fun watching them all interact. There's some real jerks aboard, make no mistake about that. I tend to really enjoy an unlikable cast of characters though, and that was definitely the case here.

There is a murder foreshadowed in the beginning and then it takes a wee bit to catch up with that event. I had a lot of theories as the story was building-out. I liked how this is a true locked room mystery. That type of set-up, figuring out how the killer would have been able to achieve their goal is always so fun for me and I enjoyed Roz trying to piece it together here.

There were many red herrings and false leads. Enough to keep me engaged and guessing throughout. Some things I got right, others I didn't, but regardless of the outcomes, I enjoyed scratching my head about it.

I think some Readers may have been turned off by the repetitive theme of sexual assault and its aftermath. I think perhaps this was marketed as a Cozy Mystery and you generally wouldn't explore that type of thing to the depths that this story does in a Cozy.

I will say, for me, I didn't think this was a Cozy going in, so didn't end up having that experience with it. I don't think I've ever read a Cozy with a black cover, so when I picked this up, I was just expecting a straight-forward Adult Mystery, which I would argue this is.

Either way, Readers should be aware that this does discuss sexual assault, as well as abuse, in detail on page. If that could be triggering for you, proceed with caution

For me, I was much more invested in the actual mystery than in the side details of the characters lives, so that portion of it didn't really impact me. Further, I think just anticipating an Adult Mystery, versus a Cozy, I felt this fell right in line with my expectations.

While this isn't perfect, I enjoyed it a lot. The ending dragged a bit, but I still felt it to be a solid Locked Room Mystery. The train setting was an absolute delight and I always love when inclement weather traps characters in an unsavory circumstance.

Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, for providing me a with a copy to read and review. I had fun with this and would actually love to see another story with Roz Parker in the lead. Perhaps she can solve a New Years Eve murder next?