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amystrella 's review for:
Murder On The Christmas Express
by Alexandra Benedict
This book should come with a trigger warning. Seriously.
If you have trauma related to rape and domestic violence, this is NOT a book for you.
Who doesn’t love an Agatha Christie style Christmas murder on a quaint European sleeper train? The cast of characters is a refreshingly modern cast: influencers, trivia masters, troubled, confident women, men with dark backgrounds and, of course, a smart female detective who is up to solving one, final case before she retires to the quiet life of playing grandma to her new grandchild.
While the premise of this story feels like an updated version of an old-school murder mystery, complete with a cozy setting and an intriguing framework – murder amidst a de-railed train in the snowy Highlands – it winds up being a confused, muddled and traumatic tale of rape, domestic violence, traumatic flashbacks and a too-neat ending to take it seriously, or to enjoy it at all, for that matter.
While murder does take center stage here, the real story proves to be about rape and the lingering trauma that follows – and there are quite a few of them. Our detective spends a great deal of her time between solving the mystery and reliving her own rape flashbacks, perpetuating a series of mini breakdowns during the investigation. And while it’s important for the reader to feel sympathy with these characters, Benedict has created a cast of mostly unlikable individuals. They don’t feel relatable and most of them have personality ticks that will just plain get on your nerves.
Then there is the personal pronoun etiquette. Benedict makes a strong effort to make a point to address proper personal pronoun usage as a way of immersing the reader in a modern style of character introduction. While I salute her for her efforts, her method was confusing and often felt a bit like she was just plain trying too hard to be relevant. Beyond that, it was just confusing. She gave the reader no warning that this was going to be her method of dialogue and character introduction. It took awhile to sort out who all the They/Thems were. It would have been incredibly helpful if, in the telling, the reader would have been made aware that the characters deemed as ‘They/Them’ were individuals and not multiple people. It made for a lot of re-reading paragraphs to visually understand who-was-who in the scenes.
In the end, this is a busy book. Too busy. It doesn’t know what story it’s trying to tell. Is this about multiple murders on a Christmas train? Is it about rape and the trauma that follows? Is it about gender equality and recognition? Is it about domestic violence? Whichever it is, its packaging is misleading - from the cozy cover to the ambiguous summary on the back flap - as your typical, snug Christmas murder mystery, but it is anything and everything BUT that.
If you have trauma related to rape and domestic violence, this is NOT a book for you.
Who doesn’t love an Agatha Christie style Christmas murder on a quaint European sleeper train? The cast of characters is a refreshingly modern cast: influencers, trivia masters, troubled, confident women, men with dark backgrounds and, of course, a smart female detective who is up to solving one, final case before she retires to the quiet life of playing grandma to her new grandchild.
While the premise of this story feels like an updated version of an old-school murder mystery, complete with a cozy setting and an intriguing framework – murder amidst a de-railed train in the snowy Highlands – it winds up being a confused, muddled and traumatic tale of rape, domestic violence, traumatic flashbacks and a too-neat ending to take it seriously, or to enjoy it at all, for that matter.
While murder does take center stage here, the real story proves to be about rape and the lingering trauma that follows – and there are quite a few of them. Our detective spends a great deal of her time between solving the mystery and reliving her own rape flashbacks, perpetuating a series of mini breakdowns during the investigation. And while it’s important for the reader to feel sympathy with these characters, Benedict has created a cast of mostly unlikable individuals. They don’t feel relatable and most of them have personality ticks that will just plain get on your nerves.
Then there is the personal pronoun etiquette. Benedict makes a strong effort to make a point to address proper personal pronoun usage as a way of immersing the reader in a modern style of character introduction. While I salute her for her efforts, her method was confusing and often felt a bit like she was just plain trying too hard to be relevant. Beyond that, it was just confusing. She gave the reader no warning that this was going to be her method of dialogue and character introduction. It took awhile to sort out who all the They/Thems were. It would have been incredibly helpful if, in the telling, the reader would have been made aware that the characters deemed as ‘They/Them’ were individuals and not multiple people. It made for a lot of re-reading paragraphs to visually understand who-was-who in the scenes.
In the end, this is a busy book. Too busy. It doesn’t know what story it’s trying to tell. Is this about multiple murders on a Christmas train? Is it about rape and the trauma that follows? Is it about gender equality and recognition? Is it about domestic violence? Whichever it is, its packaging is misleading - from the cozy cover to the ambiguous summary on the back flap - as your typical, snug Christmas murder mystery, but it is anything and everything BUT that.