A perfect closed-room mystery with the characters stuck on a train in a snowstorm. All of the characters were multifaceted, complex and every scene held your breath as you watched the events unfold. The ending will blow you away. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

i found the plot interesting, and well worth investing in, but i won't lie... i did find it hard to connect with the main character the further i read. my attention was taken in too many directions and i couldn't seem to find the motivation to not make this a chore. i think it was interesting and enjoyed the setting, the "closed train car murder" and the passengers/employees.

Interesting since I am familiar with the locale, but generally melodramatic. The characters seemed to be caricatures. There was a nice twist at the end.

I wanted this to be good but it was pulled in so many directions and didn’t land for me. The twist was pulled too far after pushing me to suspend reality so much. There wasn’t really a mystery or suspense.

6:40 to Montreal
by Eva Jurczyck
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book was not a good fit for me.
Unfortunately, my interest and connection to this book stalled, paralleling the 6:40 train to Montreal. While the premise was intriguing, I lost what little connection I had to the main character the further the train was from the station. I believe that the ‘fluff’ pulled my attention in too many directions and I lost momentum. I also believe that my lack of connection to the characters contributed to my lack of engagement in the story. It was the clumsy twist that got me; it asked me to stretch even further and I couldn’t do it.

I liked the idea of a ‘closed train car’ murder, I appreciated that I had to keep reading to pick up clues, the Canadian setting, and the quirky passengers/employees.

The story is primarily set in Canada on a train going from Toronto to Montreal. The train breaks down in the dead of winter for hours and hours and exciting things happen aboard during the breakdown... but they didn't elicit the excitement in me the could have for some reason. I just couldn't get invested in any of the characters enough and found myself skimming at times. The ending, although it couldn't come quickly enough was abrupt and not developed. I thought the title was good and the cover really lovely.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the book.

I could not put this book down! A modern whodunnit which would delight Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and all the other authors of the golden age of detective fiction.

Mystery on a train. All the passengers seem to be hiding something. Murder is afoot. When the train becomes stranded/broken down in the middle of a visit, everything starts to go wrong. An interesting read.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to have read this had a publication in exchange for an honest review.

~thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book~

I wanted to like this more than I did. People stuck somewhere with no help? My kind of book. I didn’t enjoy it that much and I think it’s because the characters were all unlike able. I also felt like nothing was happening for awhile. Maybe it’s one of those slow burn type of books but it didn’t hold my attention. 2/5 sorry :(

Well that certainly was one wild ride. This book kept me guessing from beginning to end. Every time I thought I had a piece of the mystery figured out, the plot took a sharp turn in a different direction.

This was a fun, fast-paced mystery that kept me turning the pages as fast as possible. My main criticism of the book was that there were multiple moments that just seemed a little too far fetched, taking me out of the story.

Overall though, if you’re looking for a quick, fun thriller to read, I’d definitely say give this book a try!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! Was very close to a 5 star for me but settled on a 4.5. I think the pacing was good and I actually really enjoyed the change in pace with the flashbacks and jumping into her published and prospective stories.

I think this book was the epitome for me of a main character not having to particularly likeable to enjoy the story. I have ready SO many books where not only have the MCs been unlikeable, but also unbelievable and infuriating. I didn’t respect all of Agatha’s choices (in fact so many of them were downright immoral), but she was real and interesting. I wanted the tiniest bit more from the supporting cast, but it didn’t detract from the plot for me.

I am not a typical highlighter, but some of the sentences and paragraphs in this book were spectacular to me.

I would happily recommend this book to anyone interested in a good closed door mystery and am looking forward to its release in September.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A business class train trip to Montreal goes horribly wrong in Eva Jurczyk’s “6:40 to Montreal” - a claustrophobic page turner that was equal parts unpredictable and unsettling.

The story follows Agatha, a surprise-hit author who is keeping secrets of her own, on an early morning train journey to Montreal that’s a gift from her husband. The train comes to a stop but the unexpected twists do not.

This would be a good read for someone looking for a page turner that doesn’t waste a ton of time on character development up front, as the story moves quickly with an interesting but not overly sympathetic protagonist. As someone who has commuted between Toronto and Montreal for work before, I also appreciated the local setting and familiarity.

There’s a healthy amount of tension, some blood, and an interesting cast of side characters, as well as a story within the story about Agatha’s own (possibly plagiarized-from-real-life?) novel.

While I would have preferred a slower burn, there was enough of a novel concept and meat on the bone to keep me reading through to an interesting ending!

Read if you like:
- A Canadian setting
- Snowed in, confined space style thriller
- A small cast whodunnit

Writer Agatha is taking a round trip journey in the business class section of a ViaRail train from Toronto to Montreal in order to focus on writing her next book. When a snow storm hits that halts the train, Agatha and the other business class passengers find themselves trapped with something sinister.

I absolutely love books set in Canada, so this one was fun for me in that regard. I liked the fast pace and the setting; however, it missed the mark for me with the overall plot and the ending. I found it a bit too far-fetched and unbelievable for my taste. But I still did really like the overall set up for the story. So this one definitely has its pros and cons, and I would recommend it to those who like this specific niche type of thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC ebook. Releases September 23!

The premise is good, really good. However, the telling of it was so slow. The pace was all off, I understand setting the scene and having some build up but there wasn’t enough happening early on to keep me wanting more. I didn’t care enough about some of the characters to want whole chapters on their back story. I was pulled in so many directions that I didn’t care enough about one of the directions. When it came to the ending, it felt far fetched, thrown together and not very well thought out/carried out.

Absolutely stunning over of the book and I do think with a few tweaks, the story line would’ve been enough to hold interest. It would be good as a movie.

As a lover of trains and amateur lover of mysteries, I was excited to pick this up! A crime novelist is trapped on a stopped train car in cold, snowy Canada as a murder takes place. It is a tribute to Murder on the Orient Express with a different spin. Having a mystery writer acting as the main “sleuth” gives it a cool story-within-a-story angle.

This book hits the railroad elements well. Not quite as fancy as the Orient Express - this is North America we’re talking about - but a few good shocking, train-related plot events. They set a claustrophobic atmosphere, but it isn’t too serious. I like the character development of (most of) her fellow passengers.

The tough thing about a mystery is keeping the reader engaged between the initial incident and the last 30% where things really start to speed up and come together. This book struggled to do that a bit - I wasn’t very invested through the middle section - but it came together well in the end and wasn’t too long.

The biggest issue I had is I didn’t love the narrator’s voice (our crime writer). It reminded me a lot of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Wedding People, neither of which I particularly enjoyed. That’s a personal preference, not a critique, but keep it in mind if that is/isn’t your style.

3 stars. ARC provided by NetGalley.

Interesting premise but this book was much too slow to hold my attention

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy.
Expected publication September 23, 2025.

I loved the premise of this book but unfortunately, it didn't deliver. It was much too long and a lot of the plot and the ending were extremely far-fetched. You would expect a "closed room" mystery to move slowly but this moved too slowly to keep my interest and make me want to read more. A pity because it is such a clever concept!

2.5 stars rounded up.

What starts out as a writer’s dream ~ an uninterrupted 6 hour train journey styled as a writing retreat ~ soon turns into a nightmare of epic proportions. Agatha is delighted with this thoughtful Christmas present from her husband although she has some plans at the end of the line that her loving partner doesn’t know about. Leaving behind her little boy, Agatha sets out on her journey only for the train to get stuck in a snowstorm and the full cast of characters in the first class cabin become derailed.

The 6:40 to Montreal is not all it seems. Full of bumps and turns, it is a clever, page-turner of a book. A locked room murder with so many twists, it’ll make your head spin.

3.5⭐

This was an interesting book overall with a fresh format. It is set entirely in real time with a few flashbacks in between. The ending left more to be desired. I wish it was more fleshed out but it's decent. I only read it because it was a Canada based story. I wish the characters were more interesting.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

I was very hopeful for this but I was really disappointed. It was very slow, boring and while yes I didn’t guess who actually did it, I am still confused as to who did it. It felt like a rambling of thoughts and I was contemplating DNFing it multiple times and was told by multiple people to DNF it. I wanted this to get better but to me it did not.