August 14, 2023
For her surprisingly dark follow-up to 2021’s The Christmas Murder Game, Benedict tears a leaf out of the Agatha Christie playbook and sets her tale on a posh locomotive full of suspicious Brits. The passengers aboard the sleeper train from London to Edinburgh for the Christmas holiday get a rude awakening when they derail in a remote, snowy section of the Scottish Highlands. Among the marooned are Roz Parker, a recently retired Metropolitan Police Detective who’s on her way to visit her pregnant daughter; Mary, a self-described “crone” who’s traveling with her doting son, Tony; Grant, a reality TV star; Meg, a social media influencer; and a team of college students preparing to audition for a popular quiz show. Shortly after the derailment, Meg is murdered, and Roz takes up the role of investigator, determined to ferret out the culprit before more innocent travelers die. While Benedict sticks to frothy Christie pastiche for a while, sprinkling the narrative with pub games and quizzes, cozy fans should be warned that the investigation takes a somber turn, introducing weightier-than-average themes of sexual assault into the mix. Still, strong prose and a bevy of plausible suspects keep things intriguing. Readers willing to embrace this Christmas story’s jagged edges are in for a ripping mystery. Agent: Ruth Logan, Bonnier Books.