I’m not usually a fan of the one by one trope, but this book had me entertained! I absolutely loved the 1950s post-World War II setting. I love that it took place on a train. I thought that was a very unique location for a book like this. It was fast paced. I really couldn’t figure out who the killer was. This is the way I felt for the first 75% of the book.

Then the last 25% came and it totally lost me. I did not love the way this wrapped up at all. It got very chaotic. It became outrageous and really, really unbelievable. So much happened in such a short amount of time that it was very confusing and I just didn’t love the end. This one could’ve been four stars with a different ending.

Unlike anything Riley sager has ever written! The story did star off a little slow, but I think only because it was setting the stage and introducing all the characters. Once it got going, this was a wild ride!

This one started off so strong for me! I’ll always be a Riley Sager auto-read, and this book immediately grabbed my attention. I’ll admit, things got a little too twisty toward the end—it felt a bit heavy on the gotcha moments—but I still really enjoyed the story overall. The mystery kept me fully engaged, and I had fun trying to piece together the clues and figure out the whodunit. Another solid Sager read!

*2.5 stars rounded up*
I’m disappointed to say this one just didn’t work for me. Riley Sager is one of my go-to authors—I’ve really enjoyed his previous books and was especially excited for this one after reading the synopsis. A mystery-revenge story set on a 1950s train? Count me in!

Unfortunately, I struggled to connect with the story. The plot often felt overly explained, which took the tension out of some key twists and made them feel predictable. While things did pick up toward the end, by then I was already mentally checked out and ready to move on.

That said, I’m still a Riley Sager fan and will continue to read whatever he puts out. This particular book just wasn’t a hit for me.

*2.5 stars*

As a longtime Riley Sager fan, I was eagerly anticipating his 2025 release, With a Vengeance. From the description, it promised something a little different: a classic “whodunnit” mystery that was giving Murder on the Orient Express vibes. I was intrigued to see how Sager, known for blending suspense with eerie, would put his own spin on a locked-room-style murder mystery.

Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me.

To be fair, I’ll admit I’m not drawn to traditional “whodunnits,” but I went in optimistic, trusting Sager to do what he does best: twist genres and keep readers guessing. What I found instead was a story that felt more like a by-the-numbers mystery than something fresh or unexpected. Gone were the elements I love in his other books. I kept waiting for a curveball or something weird and unsettling to surface, but it never came.

The mystery itself felt over-the-top and, at times, downright implausible. There were several plot points that had me wondering if the book was meant to be a parody. The cast of characters was large, and because the story was so focused on the plot, we never really got the chance to connect with any of them, which just made it hard to care.

Honestly, I think this could’ve worked better as a thriller, where Sager’s strengths, tense pacing, suspense, and eerie vibes, could’ve really shined.

While With a Vengeance wasn’t a hit for me, I’m still a loyal Riley Sager reader.

***Thank you to the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review***

I can always count on Riley Sager for an atmospheric, tense read that has me turning pages about as fast as is humanly possible. (Luckily, this time it was on my Kindle, so I didn't risk any papercuts.) "With a Vengeance" is a little bit of a departure from Sager's usual fare, as it takes us back to the 1950s, just on the heels of World War II, and while some of the vocabulary used in the prose is more modern, the voices of the characters fit neatly into the lexicon of the era. As Anna Matheson, the daughter of a disgraced former railroad owner, crafts a thorough revenge plot against those she deems guilty of her father's humiliation and death, gathering the sextet on an express train once owned by her family, the plot hurtles forward just as the train does. While it veers into spaces that go beyond suspension of disbelief into the utterly improbable, it's still enjoyable for what it is. A tightly-crafted, claustrophobic whodunnit that was a breeze to read. Is it perfect? Nope. Are there better locked-room mysteries out there? Sure are. But this was fun, and I'll be recommending it this summer.

While I am a huge Riley Sager fan, this book was not one of my favorites by him. I found myself a bit bored with this storyline and feel it’s a bit overdone. The characters were a little hard to follow and the story was a bit confusing.

The plot gets a little confusing and muddled. For fans of Clue the musical but the storyline is fairly guessable.

Clever whodunnit with lots of twists and turns. I loved the fact that they were on a non-stop train, and there was no escape. Riley Sager always delivers a good story, and this one is no different.

Anna has lured the six people responsible for ruining her family and her life aboard a luxury train to Chicago. She plans to confront the six and get them to confess to their motives and crimes. But her plans are derailed when one of the passengers drops dead....and then another. Are the six turning on each other? Or is there someone on this train with more sinister plans?

This book was different from what I am used to seeing from Riley. It was not my favorite by him, but I still enjoyed it!
Liked: Anna was a strong protagonist and I kept rooting for her to figure out the killer.
Disliked: Some of the scenes while atmospheric, were difficult to follow. It also was more of a slow burn than I expected.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first Riley Sager book and now I totally get why people love his stuff! I had such a good time reading this. The story takes place almost entirely on a luxury train. There was a lot of tension, so many secrets, and so many insane twists that I lost count (in the best way).
The second half was wild. It felt like surprises were coming out of nowhere, one after another. I was wrong so many more times than I was right when making predictions... And I honestly couldn't put it down.
The whole book was very fast-paced and high-stakes, and I enjoyed every moment. It reminded me of Bullet Train, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Thank you for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

12 years ago, 6 people destroyed Anna’s family. Anna is ready for revenge, and had lured the 6 on a train ride. A train ride from Philadelphia to Chicago, which ends by being met with the authorities. When a passenger dies along the way however, Anna knows she needs to find out who killed them before they all wind up dead.

I’m sure @ahatforeveryread will be absolutely shocked to know I have never read an Agatha Christie book. I know, I know, I know! So while I know the general idea, in that sense this book was completely unique! I kind of loved Anna’s plan to trap these people and torture them until handing them over to the feds. Like…what a boss b*tch response! I listened to this one and the narration was fantastic and kept me listening intently! While I saw some of the twists, I certainty did not see them all coming, which always makes a book extra enjoyable for me! Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

Thank you to @duttonbooks and @prhaudio for my gifted copt of this book!

Set in the 1950s after World War II Riley Sagers new book takes place over one night on a train to Chicago. Twelve years ago, due to a train explosion, Anna wrongfully lost her whole family in various ways. Now she was vengeance for the wrongs committed. She lurers the 6 people who helped commit the wrong onto a train from Philly that will not stop until Chicago hoping to hand them over to the FBI that will be waiting. If all goes to plan all 6 of those people should arrive at the station alive and unharmed.

To preface, Riley Sager is one of my favorite thriller authors. I have read most of his books. So, it hurts to say that unfortunately this one did not deliver for me. Many of his other books has kept me on my toes, waiting for the twists and turns. This time the plot twist and turned so much that if this had been a car trip I could have sworn, I saw the same tree 3 times.

I did like some of the characters. Anna was good and I am glad that she stuck to her guns (ha!) of having all of those people who wronged her arrive alive to Chicago. I did like the Detective even though he wound up being rather unhelpful instead of helpful. Dante was also interesting, and I had hoped that him and Anna could have had some sort of endgame. I also appreciated that in the end Anna was able to look into being an FBI agent. That was a nice touch.

As for the guy that was Anna's partner in her train plan, I figured it was him from the beginning. Then it was revealed to be him, but, then it wasn't. Just kidding it was him but he's not the only one killing people. That was where I got kind of bored.

This plot sounded like it was going to be an interesting read. It just kind of felt flat in my opinion. I look forward to Riley Sagers next book though! Hopefully it will be a better fit for me.

This is perfect for someone who liked "Murder on the Orient Express" and wants to read another locked door mystery.

An excellent mystery with compelling and dynamic characters. Loved the confined environment the train provided, and the ticking clock of the train's eventual destination. Added urgency and tension to almost every scene.

I have really enjoyed some Riley Sager books in the past, and I was excited by the idea of this one. That being said, I was bored most of the time. I think the struggle with locked door mysteries is that the writer has to somehow provide enough intrigue within a closed system to maintain the suspense of it all. I did not feel like Sager accomplished that with this one. The premise is pretty far fetched, to begin with. The idea that this woman would use everything she has left in the world to organize this extreme revenge trip rather than just going straight to the authorities and using her little nest egg to create some sort of future for herself really asks the reader to suspend their disbelief. Anna fluctuates between the innocent doe eyed victim of a grand plot and an absolute sociopath. Then there's the fact that men are just falling over themselves to be with her. It almost became something you could play a drinking game with - every time a man on this train comes on to Anna, take a drink - you'd be unwell. The moments - and yes, there are more than one - when two of the men fight over her are particularly off putting. The six people locked on the train with this unstable femme fatale are all completely one dimensional. The FBI Agent, the retired military man, the childhood sweetheart - it's all just so tropy. Nobody has any depth except for Anna, and her depths are...bizarre. I kept asking myself if Sager was trying to make fun of the tropes from mysteries of this era because this really didn't feel like a Riley Sager book to me. It felt lazy and one dimensional.

Vividly evoking the feel of Agatha Christie all while adding his own classic verve, Riley Sager crafted a clever locked room mystery in his newest novel, With a Vengeance. From the ratcheting pace to the intricate plotting, I felt like a fly on the wall of the cross-country train turned site of revenge. A riveting game of cat-and-mouse that held plenty of deftly obscured twists and turns, there wasn’t a chance of me figuring any of it out before each reveal. You see, every time a plot-shifting twist arrived on the scene, it changed up the direction just enough to leave my jaw hanging in midair. But then, I think that being taken completely unawares is always the best kind of surprise.

As for the characters, alongside a whole crew of morally gray characters, I was head over heels for the strong, clever, and upstanding protagonist. Mildly flawed and with plenty of past traumas, Anna was the epitome of Sager’s best heroines. Of course, the fact that this masterful author manages to show and not tell who each of these personas were at their core only amplified his undeniable talent. Thanks to the well-developed multiple POVs, I not only understood where each of them were coming from, but I felt their gnawing sadness and grief. Well, except for those of them that I just loved to hate. Clearly, I was blown away by each of their well-rounded perspectives.

I do have to mention, of course, that this newest Sager novel has gotten some rather mixed reviews. I put this down to the fact that it was quite the departure from his prior novels. More mystery than thriller, it brought to life a very Murder on the Orient Express slash And Then There Were None-esque vibe. If that’s not what you’re expecting, then it might just not be your kind of read. That being said, I was an ardent admirer of it from beginning to end, so perhaps you should give it a try regardless of any and all doubts? After all, once it hit the halfway point, the plot became one huge adrenaline-fueled climax with bodies dropping like flies.

All said and done, I was blown away by yet another book by this unstoppable author. Again squeezing in a slight paranormal edge, it had me questioning everything and everyone as I sped through the novel. The best piece of all, though? How even once the evil doer was outed, there was still yet more to be revealed. You see, this onion-like plot was equal parts whodunnit and whydunnit—otherwise known as the best combo of all. So if you like mildly historical settings that modernize a Golden Age murder mystery-type plot, this book is most definitely for you. Just don’t expect one of Sager’s past novels as this has an altogether different feel. Rating of 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Riley Sager, Dutton Books, and NetGalley for my complimentary physical and digital copies. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin/ Dutton and Mr. Sager for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

If Murder on the Orient Express (which I LOVE) was crossed with Clue (which I ALSO LOVE) and set in 1954 (which I DO NOT love but also don't mind, at least it's not yet another WWII Historical, lord help me). Anna has assembled six individuals who she can prove destroyed her family on a luxury train, where they are the sole passengers, and which will deposit them directly in Chicago into the open arms of the FBI. ((((Why she wants to do follow through with this plan, which is literally costing her ALL her money, and has about 1000 ways things could go wrong, is tenuously explained as "she wants to witness their delivery to justice for herself." Yeah, okay.))))

I love a locked-room mystery. I love the horrible claustrophobic isolation of a train, especially one without stops and in inclement weather. A train has the added bonus of all those weird little closets and compartments where people or other surprises could hide. I just couldn't really understand why Anna would do this. Her rationale/motivation seemed a little weak. Why not just give the documents to the FBI and call it a day? SO many things could (and did) go wrong, but frankly as just one woman with a "helper" Anna could easily have been subdued by the other passengers; desperate people will do desperate things and I kept waiting for it to happen. TBH I was *really* hoping for a Clue-style ending in which each person offs another, but (spoiler) that ALSO did not happen. I didn't really mind that the horror aspect was low to nonexistent. I understood it to be a historical mystery and it was exactly that. I will say, Riley Sager has a real talent at creating an atmospheric setting. I really felt like I was on that slightly musty, slightly worn down luxury train in the early 50s. The train itself was my favorite character! lol

Overall an enjoyable mystery. ⭐⭐⭐

One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge. In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.

Author @riley.sager does it again with a standout thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night. The locked room on a train premise and the multiple plot twists make this a must read for any suspense fan! This is, by far, one of his best books.

Thanks for the opportunity to read!

Summary:
1942. A train deployed with soldiers leaves Philadelphia, only to find its fate doomed as the train explodes with every passenger on board. Anna Matheson's only sibling, Tommy, is lost in the disaster, but he isn't the only one who suffers from the tragedy. Her parents lives are ripped away from her. Others lose family who were employed by the railroad company. And 12 years later, Anna, who is sent mysterious files about the doomed train, is out for vengeance. Rather than let the FBI do their job and arrest those involved, she wants answers. So she gathers up all the suspects for a one-way, non-stop trip to Chicago, on what will become yet another doomed train... where not everyone will make it out alive.

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Personal:
I am typically a huge Riley Sager fan, but this was my least favorite of his works that I've read so far. I felt like the writing was very slow. It was very hard to get into until nearly the second half of the book, and the twists weren't anything crazy (I had a far better idea for one than what actually ends up happening!). It took me months to finish on and off, and I wish it had been faster paced so that it would have kept my attention better. I had a friend who didn't even finish it at all for similar reasons. Because of the slow pacing, I unfortunately have to rate this one a 3. As someone who has been traveling on trains a lot lately, I did really like the setting. But I just couldn't get into this story. Also as a random complaint, I just disliked the name Judd Dodge because I kept stumbling over pronouncing it every time it came up.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

With a Vengeance is the newest Riley Sager book. This book has a unique premise of a group of 6 individuals invited to take a train journey from Philadelphia to Chicago. The people do not know who invited them or why until arriving on the train. Once there, they learn that Anna Matheson has invited them based on all of their past misdeeds which have ruined her family. Anna wants revenge for her family, but as the train speeds towards Chicago, her plans start to unravel as passengers are mysteriously killed.

I have read several Sager books and this was by far my favorite. I loved the train premise and the locked room aspects throughout. While there wasn't as much of a thriller vibe, I enjoyed the fast pace and was on the edge of my seat until the end. Highly recommend as a fast paced, summer read by the pool!