The Sleeping Car Murders

When the overnight train from Marseille arrives in Paris, thirty-year-old Georgette Thomas is found strangled in sleeping birth 222, even though her ticket shows she’d booked birth 224. In total, six passengers had reservations in the same compartment. Inspector Grazziano is assigned the case and responds dutifully, as he has done for the previous forty wearying years. Matters take an unexpected turn when one of the other passengers is found dead – shot in the head from close range, a professional killing. Grazziano’s boss suspects someone is eliminating anyone who might have witnessed the original crime. Each of the six chapters comprising the core of the novel focuses on one of the six passengers, the victim included, delving deeply into their character, background, acquaintances, even their aspirations and fears. The richness of this material provides a surfeit of clues and evidence that serves to baffle, as much as guide, Grazziano and reader alike. The jumps in chronology and switches in perspective make the already ingenious plot even more difficult to fathom. To solve this excellent mystery, readers will need to stretch their detective skills to the limit and have the patience and understanding of Inspector Grazziano.