Review by smepplin95 - Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

smepplin95 's review for:

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

4.0

funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a good, fun-to-read modern whodunnit. The tone reminded me of “The Thursday Murder Club” or “Magpie Murders,” which I also enjoyed. It started out a bit slow, but once the first crime was committed, the pacing really picked up and I couldn’t put it down. I also really liked the spin that the narrator was being upfront with the reader and giving us a “fair play” mystery.

I have a couple complaints that kept me from giving it a higher rating:
1. First, I found myself really frustrated with the narrator a few times. I know he’s self-deprecating and admits when he messes up, but I still just wanted to shake him a few times.

For example, when he messed up his proposal to Juliette and she complained that he was too obsessed with playing detective. He admitted as much, but then went on to continue playing detective to the point of doing the big reveal get-together at the end and then getting attacked by the killer, and Juliette was fine with this and forgave him? I would’ve been even more mad if I were her lol.

In a whodunnit, I want to like and root for the detective, and I didn’t quite dislike Ernest, but I didn’t like him either.
2. The mystery was good, but I didn’t have that “Oh yeah, I totally should’ve known that!” moment when

the murderer was revealed.

I think there were enough clues to figure out

the truth about Jasper and the side mysteries of Majors/Douglas and Brooke/Lisa

, but not enough for the big reveal. Maybe I’m just dense though lol.

I still enjoyed this book a lot and will definitely be going back and reading the first one since I unintentionally skipped it. And I would highly recommend this book to any fans of Poirot-style murder mysteries.

Content Warnings