However, while I found myself saying “Ah-ha” many times in the course of the story, the final resolution dragged out so long that that ultimate, satisfying “AH-HA” never happened. As anyone familiar with Agatha Christie’s work will know they feature in several of her books (…) but a quick look at the cover art for the BLCC series also shows trains make a regular appearance. Farjeon provides a superior example of the Old Dark House genre, this time with snow, that will remind readers with long memories of his play No. Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst," the blurb states. When Bennett’s uncle, the cantankerous amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale arrives from London to make sense of this impossible crime, the reader is treated to a feast of the author’s trademark twists, beguiling false answers and one of the most ingenious solutions in the history of the mystery genre.

A murder turns out to have taken place on the train, and later another body is discovered in the snow. There are a good cast of characters, including an elderly bore, a psychic, a brother and sister, a young office clerk and a chorus girl travelling to an audition. This has little in common with Murder on the Orient Express, aside from the whole train in winter thing. There are several more titles in the British Library Crime Classics series that I plan to share with you over the next few month. Already he had lost his sense of direction, for all he could see was a bewildering succession of snowflake close-ups, almost blinding vision.

The novel tells the story of an eclectic group of six people stuck on a train stranded by snow on Christmas Eve. I’m fascinated to look in more detail at how they feature in stories, in particular crime fiction, and how accurately they are portrayed. The whole set up is quite wildly improbable and the amateur detective (a psychic expert) is perhaps a little too insightful, but all the disparate people and elements of the plot make for a darn good story. The reason for this is that oft times when the goings on in the plot are very much a mystery to the reader!

It had the potential to be one of those fun when you're in the mood for it kind of books, but became harder and harder to ever get in that mood, because I didn't care about any of these people and the constant verbal interaction between the characters I couldn't warm to made it rough going. There is the journey of a disparate group on Christmas Eve; the train stuck in the storm on the tracks; some passengers who decide to strike out for a nearby rail station despite the storm. A train stuck in the impossible snow, snow that won't let up, strangers together deciding to try to walk to the next station, finding a deserted house, fire laid tea ready to be served, but the house is empty. for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.This book was just what I wanted on a dreary, rainy day, with its interesting setting, curious plot and characters that were out of British central casting. They enter looking for its occupants, but no one is there even though the fires are laid on, the tea set is laid out, and the kettle is boiling. For a while it looks like they might get lost in the white-out, but they come upon a deserted house. The Carringtons really take centre stage – David mostly trying to work out the truth behind the peculiar happenings, Lydia attempting to keep everybody happy, warm and well fed.

From that point on, characters come in and info dump to explain murders (in the past and present), motives and a possibility that all the eerieness was simply the creation of a character's psychic powers which all conspired to create quite a bit of dissonance for this reader. However walking in unfamiliar countryside without a map and very little visibility is easier said than done. The door is unlocked and, desperate for shelter, they go on in and find an unusual sight--there are fires blazing in the fireplaces, the table is set for tea, and the kettle is on the boil.Cut off in the snow, with no way of making contact with anyone, the group have to make the best of things – while feeling more than a little uncomfortable about making themselves at home in somebody else’s house. So bearing in mind that this story is set in the 20s after the 1st world war and therefore some of the language and vocabulary might seem old fashioned , the story is so clever and well written and keeps you guessing. Hopelessly lost, they’re reunited when they all take refuge in Valley House, a dwelling where the kettle is boiling and the table hospitably set for tea even though the place is deserted.