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!

Whether you're a long-time Riley Sager fan (like I am) or new to his work, this latest book With a Vengeance is a captivating ride that blends vintage vibes with modern suspense.

This was a standout in Sager’s lineup and felt like a refreshing shift from his last couple of books, which in my opinion were duds. Anna’s life was destroyed by six people and she is determined to get justice. Under false pretenses, Anna lures them on a 14-hour train ride—where they are the only passengers—with the end goal turning these individuals into the Chicago’s FBI team where the evidence lies. but when one of them is murdered, her entire plan is at risk. This was an atmospheric read, set in 1942, it has serious classic noir vibes with clear inspirations from Strangers on a Train, The Narrow Margin, and The Lady Vanishes—which made it even more fun to read.

This was a high speed train ride with no escape (literally). The pacing was great throughout—tight, tense, and never dragging. I was hooked by the murder mystery and the layered revenge plot, but what really pulled me in was Anna Matheson. She’s a phenomenal main character—smart, gutsy, and incredibly sharp. Definitely one of my favorite Sager characters!

Multiple twists, suspicious murders, and suspects everywhere this one is super entertaining. Solid 4 stars from me!

I am a huge fan of Riley Sager, so whenever there is a new book coming out, I am right there waiting for it! This book was a departure from some of the more intense Sager novels and felt more like an edgy cozy mystery to me. But I still enjoyed it all the same. There was the historical aspect, which is always fun - solving a mystery in another time without cell phones and answers at your fingertips. I also love mysteries set on a train. This book was a delight to read. Loved the characters and found it to be engaging.

🚂WITH A VENGEANCE by Riley Sager🚂

📆PUB DATE: June 17
➡️Swipe for synopsis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: Audiobook/ebook (thank you @prhaudio for the free audiobook!)
Read if you like:
🔏Locked-room thrillers
🗝️Noir-style books
💔Revenge plots

With A Vengeance started out rocky for me; I initially DNF’d the e-book about 25% in because of a slow start and plot that didn’t necessarily appeal to me. I decided to try again with the audio version, and I’m so glad I did! After the characters and setting were established, the tension built up and the last third of the book was full of twists and turns. As for the characters, they were all extremely unlikeable. I know this was purposeful, but it made it hard to get invested in their outcomes.

While not my favorite Riley Sager, if you stick it out until the end of the book, you’ll be glad you did.

With A Vengeance is the new summer release by Riley Sager. This one is set on a train in the 1950s. It definitely reads like a locked room mystery, and I found the trapped-on-a-train setting to be enjoyable. You could feel the tension build as the passengers navigated through the train cars, not knowing whom they could trust. I liked that we got to know the backstory of each passenger and why they were personally selected to be on the train for this once-in-a-lifetime trip. Now to see who can survive to the end. Read and enjoy!

I loved this Agatha Christie inspired turn for Riley Sager. With a Vengeance is the perfect summer read.

Anna Matheson has to figure out who has caused her family so much heartbreak. She has a plan to exact revenge on the responsible party and decides to create a situation conducive to getting the suspects cooperation. Enter a locked room mystery reminiscent of all the greats, fast paced and compulsively readable, I was turning pages until the very end.

There’s no summer without a new Riley Sager book—and With a Vengeance did not disappoint! As a die-hard Agatha Christie fan, I was beyond excited for this one. A train journey, a locked-room mystery, and a long-buried secret? Count me in!

This book feels a little different from Sager’s previous work, yet still unmistakably his. The writing style is familiar, the pacing is tight, and each chapter builds suspense masterfully. And of course, there’s that signature twisty ending that keeps you guessing until the very last page.

Sager does a fantastic job channeling a Christie-esque mystery while making it feel fresh and relevant for today’s readers. It’s clever, atmospheric, and just plain fun. Perfect for a sunny day read—highly recommended!

I was so excited to receive an early copy of With a Vengeance. I have read all of Riley Sager's thrillers and unfortunately, this one just didn't deliver for me the way his past stories have. I had trouble keeping the characters straight and found the pacing to be a bit off. It had an Agatha Christie/Knives Out vibe and a fun premise, it just ultimately wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was not my favorite Riley Sager book. Overall, it was too slow paced for me and there was too much telling instead of showing for my liking. There were character POVs that I liked and the setting/premise were cool which is why I was still able to finish it.

Not the book I would recommend from the author but it still worth a read for you are looking for a quick read filled with criminal suspense.

This was so much fun, I read it in one sitting! I love locked room, race against the clock mysteries, and as a die-hard Agatha Christie fan, this was all the best vibes!

I was so happy to receive the arc of this! Thank you so much for sending it to me. I love Riley Sager so I was looking forward to this. However, this was kind of a dud for me. I am bummed that I didn’t like this. I think the setting is so cool in this. The claustrophobia of the train and the characters trying to work together to solve the murders kept me engaged. I also love Anna because she’s smart, strong and has an equal balance of coldness and caring. Her relationships with everyone is has a good through line and she reacts to everyone differently. However, I don’t think the split POV works for this book. It is surprising to me how much we don’t see given how many POVs we see. It doesn’t make a ton of sense. I think that the pacing of this suffers from the author not wanting to reveal his whole hand. I was surprised by some of the twists but most of the twists were predictable and I was just waiting for them to pop up. The killer being the person we have the least amount of information on is kind of a cop out. I want to know why his family fell apart after the crash. We hear about Anna and while that makes sense, I wished that the killer had given us more. Same with Sermaus because it would have given us more reason to think he the killer. You did get me with Tommy though. I thought for most of this book that he was alive and was waiting for him to pop up. The fact that it was Dante was a good twist. The biggest flop with this book is the pacing and how simple the story is overall. I do like the setting and the relationships between the characters. I would recommend this one but it is not my favorite of his books. Please note that my review for this will not be on Goodreads because they requested no spoilers. I may wait a bit to post one so people can read it. Thank you for the ARC!

Anna Matheson is the sole surviving member of the Matheson family and she is out for revenge. Gathering the six people responsible for the deaths of her family is the easy part. Getting their confessions turns out to be harder than she expected - especially when one of them ends up dead.

With a Vengeance takes its time getting warmed up as we are introduced to all of the characters and the parts they played in the Matheson family’s demise. Once the action picks up, you really do feel like you’re barreling towards Chicago and racing against the clock. One thing I love about Sager’s book is how descriptive he is with his settings and how he really creates an ambiance. While I was reading it felt like I was watching an old timey movie unfold because I could visualize everything so well. It really added to my enjoyment of this book.

I hope Sager will continue to play around with different genres outside of horror as I think he does it well. The locked room/train plot has been done before, but Sager’s twist on the story will keep you guessing and entertained the the whole way through. The man loves a plot twist and some of them I did not see coming. While this wasn’t my favorite Sager novel, it was far from my least and I will continue to read his books in the future.

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for a review copy.

I'm not even sure where to begin. For some reason, I thought this book was a horror. I went into it expecting horror, and it turned out to be more of a murder mystery/thriller. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

I got through the first 40% not really liking the story and not really sure where the heck it was going. I wasn’t enjoying the characters much, and I didn’t love that the whole thing took place on a train. After the 50% mark, it started to pick up a little more, and by that point, I was invested enough to finish.

I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil any of the plot twists. I will say the author did a really good job of keeping me guessing. Every time I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong.

Overall, I’m still a little unsure how I feel. It had its moments, and I’m glad I stuck with it, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. If you're into slow-burn thrillers with a few good twists, it might be worth checking out.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley and the author for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars
This started off slow for me but I think that's because in the beginning we're just getting to know the characters and the background for why they're all there. I think when we got the reveal of why they were all gathered and the the first murder it really picked up for me and despite there only being a few options on who the killer might be, I never figured it out lol. This actually ended up being a fun whodunit with interesting characters and though this storyline feels like it's been done before, I still enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton for the ARC!

Riley Sager’s “With a Vengeance” is a tense thriller that blends classic whodunit elements with the author’s signature psychological suspense — all while aboard a luxury 1950s train bound for Chicago.

As a fan of Sager’s previous work, this was certainly a unique addition to his lineup. Less of a horror, more of a classic Agatha-Christie-esque thriller/mystery. In my personal opinion, this isn’t a knock on WaV, but just something to note for readers that might expect the same tone as his other novels. Overall an enjoyable read that kept me guessing, as always!

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I love Riley Sager's books and this did not disappoint. This was a little different than some of his others but I enjoyed the setting and the plot.

When Anna’s family is destroyed by a group of six individuals, she swears that she will get her revenge in the newest release from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, With a Vengeance (Riley Sager, Penguin Random House, 2025). Sager uses this novel to deviate from his usual eerie vibe, and instead creates a Murder on the Orient Express type thriller with the political and social intrigue of post World War II tensions.

In order to avenge her family and clear her father’s name, Anna invites the six people responsible for their downfall onto what was once her family’s beloved train, The Philadelphia Phoenix, for a non-stop thirteen hour journey from Philadelphia to Chicago. While she does not intend to harm them in any capacity, and instead trap them until they can be arrested upon their arrival, others on the train have a different fate in mind. As the bodies begin to drop, Anna no longer knows who she can trust, or if any of them will make it off of the train alive.

As an avid fan of Sager’s I have been eagerly waiting for this release since it was first announced and am sad to say that I was slightly let down. It took me a while to get into the story itself, something that I don’t tend to experience when reading Sager’s books, and because of this I was also not entirely inclined to pick it up during the earlier chapters. I think the size of the cast of characters we read from partially contributed to that, because as the number of perspectives decreased throughout the book, the more invested I became.

Overall, I found the book to be fast-paced and entertaining when I was able to sit down for longer chunks of time. The atmosphere and setting really shone through in this novel, emphasizing the haze of hatred, suspense, and relational tensions present throughout the story. As is typical for Sager, the twists unfolded in a skillful and shocking manner, making the reader believe they have figured out whodunit only to pull the rug out from under us.

I truly think that the root of my issues with this novel simply comes from the fact that I did not feel like the book was written by Sager. For the most part, Sager’s novels tend to emanate a constant sense of eeriness and terror that I didn’t experience while reading this one. I don’t think that authors should not venture out and try other genres or styles than they usually write. However, I do think that I held a certain expectation for this book going into it, and was for that reason let down.

With a Vengeance is overall an entertaining read that forces the reader to ponder what they would do in Anna’s (and the other’s) situation. Sager will keep you guessing and counting down the hours left on this bloody crossing of revenge.

4.5 stars rounded up

Oh how I loved this book. I had no idea what to expect as it was my first time with a Riley Sager book. Safe to say, I’m a fan.

The plot was so good. So different, unusual and impossible to keep everything straight in the best way possible. So many secrets revealed when they are needed to move the story forward. However, the story is all over the place, just like life. It’s not scary and not tense, just a good book that kept me engaged and interested.

Advanced reader copy provided by Dutton but all opinions are my own.