Murder On The Christmas Express: All aboard for the puzzling Christmas mystery of the year

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Cassetti collected a significant ransom from the wealthy Armstrong family, then revealed that he had already killed the child. However, what I can say here is that Murder on the Christmas Express is far more disturbing and gritty than I had anticipated and all the more affecting for it. Sonia Armstrong, Daisy's mother, who was pregnant with her second child, went into premature labor upon hearing the news and died, along with the baby. But everyone else’s memories are shaded with their own ink, and if two or more of your memories mix, then they marble together and cannot be separated. Overall, this was an interesting mystery, but is is a lot heavier than you would think from the blurb.

Armstrong's valet; Michel is Susanne's father and the person who procured the false second uniform; Hubbard is actually actress Linda Arden (Daisy's grandmother and Sonia and Helena's mother); Schmidt was the Armstrongs' cook; and Ohlsson was Daisy's nurse. This version was abridged from the book version (losing some 25% of the text), was without chapter divisions, and named the Russian princess as Dragiloff instead of Dragomiroff.

Unfortunately, it wasn't particularly twisty, the solutions were unimaginative and some of the characters behaved in ridiculous ways. The synopsis promises a similar plot to the famous “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Ballet Star Sergei Polunin Lands Roles in 'Murder on the Orient Express,' 'Red Sparrow' (Exclusive)". DI Rosalind Parker, who’s parted ways with Lewisham’s Criminal Investigation Division after 25 years, is on her way to Fort William, Scotland, to be with her very pregnant daughter, who's gone into labor during Christmas week.

To my mind this was a distraction and looking for them would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack – so I didn't bother. The US title of Murder in the Calais Coach was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel Stamboul Train, which had been published in the United States as Orient Express. Her grieving husband, Colonel Armstrong, shot himself, and Daisy's French nursemaid, Susanne, was accused of aiding Cassetti and committed suicide, only to be found innocent afterwards.It comes across here as an attempt to be relevant: hey, kids, my characters use Twitter and TikTok and Google and e-cigarettes and wear skinny jeans and are influencers and reality TV stars and are totally topical. My other issue with the book is that none of the characters come across as particularly likeable; they don't really develop any kind of personality other than long descriptions of what they're doing or obsessing about. Benedict is also a keen quizzer and as well as this being integral to the plot, she includes 16 anagrams of her favourite stories and poems in the text. When I started this novel, I expected a nice Christmas cozy with all the trimmings but this is definitely not that.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Having said that, it's good that the author is trying to create positive representation, even if it is done in a clunky and expositional way.I will say that it should have a trigger warning for sexual assault, traumatic birth, spousal abuse, and cheating.