Welcome to Litsy!

It's finally cold (with a smidge of snow!) in the Denver area which was good for reading a book about a train stranded due to a snowstorm. Agatha is traveling first class as a sort of writing retreat but we soon learn she has a secret reason for this day trip, as well as an acrimonious relationship with a fellow passenger. Once the train has stopped, the passengers realize one of them is dead. Soon Agatha has reason to believe it was murder

First published in 1958 this book, according to Towles, launched the mystery genre in Japan. Having read it, I understand why. A crime that, on the surface, doesn‘t appear to be one. An airtight alibi. A grizzled veteran investigator who can‘t escape a sense of doubt, a young investigator who knows something isn‘t quite right. It has all the elements and Matsumoto‘s revealing of the truth is really well timed. I really enjoyed this one.

Went to a bookstore for the first time in ages and didn‘t find any of the books I was actually looking for. 😬 I did, however, find three books on my “keep an eye out for these” list and a new one by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Definitely ready for some holiday long weekend reading!

Agatha,an author with a smash debut novel, is struggling to write her follow-up. Her husband gifts her a train ticket from Toronto to Montreal so she can write in peace. When the track breaks down part way through the journey and a fellow passenger dies, Agatha is less worried about her book and more about survival. An easy read with a decent twist. Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

I really loved this one. At first it was like any other fantasy; beckoning us to take a closer look at this train, its staff, and passengers. But don‘t look too closely at the passing landscape. It was dreamlike. The idea of being stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere, with an ever-changing landscape with unknown creatures on the prowl, sounds terrifying. But then it turns ethereal and whimsical, full of magic. The underlying theme is greed…⬇️

“We leave new life in our wake; young vines curling around ancient houses; new shoots stirring in the soil; flora and fauna not found in any of the natural histories so far written. We leave you to find ways to live alongside it, to make the choice that faces us all—whether to turn away from the changes, to fight, to flee; or whether to welcome them in.”

“Within all things, a striving to achieve a more perfect form.”

“…though the crow is a much maligned bird—a creature cannot be good or evil, not like man, who is born good and pure, who must learn evil.”

“This is why we have our rituals, she thinks. This is why they are needed—so that we can lose ourselves for a while.”

“…they take up the years of superstition, the ritual—boundaries have to be marked, after all, and what is it about a line that brings on the urge to leap over it?”