Siblings Joe and Meredith (Meri) Penvale are celebrating his recent completion of cancer treatment by taking a trip on the famed Orient Express. Joe has recently had a hit with a mystery novel set in their native Australia. Since becoming ill, he's been unable to write. Both hope that a trip made famous in another mystery novel will help get his creative juices flowing. They are accompanied by two young men who host the "Death of the Reader" podcast and hope to record their experiences as well as get interviews with Joe. Just a few hours into the trip, strange things begin to happen. The cabin next door to Joe and Meri's houses a taciturn and mysterious man. When he doesn't answer the call for breakfast, Joe and Meri come into the corridor. They, along with a steward, attempt to open the door but it's locked from the inside. After forcing it, they are all alarmed to find the inside of the cabin is splashed with blood everywhere. There is no body to be found, so everyone is unsure if the former occupant is the victim or the perpetrator of a violent crime. Soon the murders begin (the Five victims from the title), and it transpires that quite a few guests on the train have current or former law enforcement ties. This group, including Joe and Meri, are gathered together and tasked with investigating the crimes until the train arrives in Venice. There is an added difficulty in that this takes place during the early days of the covid pandemic, so some people on the train are infected and being quarantined in several cars.

I appreciate the set-up of this novel, encompassing many famous mystery tropes: the Orient Express, a locked room mystery, and many suspects who have a motive to get revenge. However, the book just had a lot of running around and it all got a bit jumbled. There were groups of people forever splitting up into other groups and going off to investigate, much of which involved breaking into each other's cabins to "look for evidence." Just what everyone expected to find was unclear. Then there was a lot of "you stay here, I'm going to look for X" only for many other distractions to take place and X never actually being found, but the person who was supposed to stay put running off. It was all very tiring. All that running around never seemed to accomplish much and just served to confuse the story. Also, there were many different nationalities on board, but the single unpleasant American didn't speak like an American. He used phrases such as "pilfering from the punters" that is just not something an American would say ("punter" only having a football connotation!). The end of the book had the transcript of the podcast episode tacked on and it didn't add anything new to the story and seemed to just rehash the events of the book that we already knew.

Patrons who are drawn in by a locked room/stranded setting, and who are intrigued by the Orient Express may enjoy this story. While I enjoyed the pacing and characters from Gentill's The Mystery Writer and The Woman in the Library, Five Found Dead did not capture my attention in the same way. The first 5-7 chapters are fast-paced and give you lots of context, but then the pacing begins to slow, the plot lines start to wander, and the ending arrives very gradually. I can see others enjoying this, and it is more mystery than suspense/thriller.

Siblings Joe and Meredith (Meri) Penvale are celebrating his recent completion of cancer treatment by taking a trip on the famed Orient Express. Joe has recently had a hit with a mystery novel set in their native Australia. Since becoming ill, he's been unable to write. Both hope that a trip made famous in another mystery novel will help get his creative juices flowing. They are accompanied by two young men who host the "Death of the Reader" podcast and hope to record their experiences as well as get interviews with Joe. Just a few hours into the trip, strange things begin to happen. The cabin next door to Joe and Meri's houses a taciturn and mysterious man. When he doesn't answer the call for breakfast, Joe and Meri come into the corridor. They, along with a steward, attempt to open the door but it's locked from the inside. After forcing it, they are all alarmed to find the inside of the cabin is splashed with blood everywhere. There is no body to be found, so everyone is unsure if the former occupant is the victim or the perpetrator of a violent crime. Soon the murders begin (the Five victims from the title), and it transpires that quite a few guests on the train have current or former law enforcement ties. This group, including Joe and Meri, are gathered together and tasked with investigating the crimes until the train arrives in Venice. There is an added difficulty in that this takes place during the early days of the covid pandemic, so some people on the train are infected and being quarantined in several cars.

I appreciate the set-up of this novel, encompassing many famous mystery tropes: the Orient Express, a locked room mystery, and many suspects who have a motive to get revenge. However, the book just had a lot of running around and it all got a bit jumbled. There were groups of people forever splitting up into other groups and going off to investigate, much of which involved breaking into each other's cabins to "look for evidence." Just what everyone expected to find was unclear. Then there was a lot of "you stay here, I'm going to look for X" only for many other distractions to take place and X never actually being found, but the person who was supposed to stay put running off. It was all very tiring. All that running around never seemed to accomplish much and just served to confuse the story. Also, there were many different nationalities on board, but the single unpleasant American didn't speak like an American. He used phrases such as "pilfering from the punters" that is just not something an American would say ("punter" only having a football connotation!). The end of the book had the transcript of the podcast episode tacked on and it didn't add anything new to the story and seemed to just rehash the events of the book that we already knew.

Thank you for this book in exchange for my honest review. I liked the authors ability to write a diverse set of characters. Also, the storyline was engaging, and I found myself really connected to each person, specifically the twin main characters. My only disappointment was the fat shaming of one minor character, and there were a few spelling and grammatical errors in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC. This was such a fun book. I loved the inspiration of Murder On the Orient Express details, it was a lovely homage. This would have been 4 stars if not for the cancer and Covid plot details, but that’s just personal preference. I will definitely be checking out this author in the future.

This was everything I hoped for. It was dark. It was mysterious. It had the intrigue and the characters who's shoulders I felt like I was watching over the entire time. I could not stop.

Gentill incorporates Agatha Christie’s “Midnight on the Orient Express” as the background of her mystery set on the Orient Express. Gentill loves to drop plenty of twists and turns and throws in plenty of red herrings. Her characters were well developed, the mystery was well written and kept you turning the pages. I would recommend this book for anyone who really enjoys a great mystery that will keep you guessing. Joe, a mystery writer, and his sister, Meredith have decided to take a trip on the Orient Express after Joe is declared cancer free. They are both so excited to be on the now famous Orient Express and to be able to picture Christie’s story. They fall into a possible murder on the second day of the trip. The compartment next door is covered in blood and there are no signs of the occupant. Where is the body and who has killed him. Join Joe, Meredith, and the other cast of characters to find out what happened to the occupant in 16G and will there be more killings. Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.