Challenge Corner discussion

One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.

In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.

Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.

But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge—and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.

With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them—even though it means putting her own life at risk.

Yay I love Riley Sager .

I have read Home Before Dark and The Only One Left

If yall are up for more Riley Sager BR , count me in !!

Yes! I love this author too! I think I've read everything he's put out so far! they were all so good - I don't think I've ever given less than 3 stars to a single one!

SO Excited for this one!

I've read three of his and they were 4 & 5 stars for me. I have most of his books as TBR. lol I love him. I have high hopes for this one!

okay, you know me. I love a good character list! lol

UPDATED THRU: Ch 9

Anna - brought everyone there (view spoiler)[did her father die? and she's blaming this group? (hide spoiler)]

Seamus - helping her/porter

Car 12:

Sally Lawrence, Car 12, Room A (view spoiler)[ she was his secretary. lied and forged documents to get her father convicted (hide spoiler)]

Lt. Col. Jack Lapsford, Car 12, Room B (view spoiler)[ he was tied to the military and trains and he made it clear he sabotaged a train full of - soldiers? weapons? both? - and shaped part of the war (hide spoiler)]

Kenneth Wentworth, Car 12, Room C (view spoiler)[ Actually Dante - son of Kenneth. . .he had a previous relationship with Anna. and his father is behind all of this (hide spoiler)]

Car 13

Herb Pulaski, Car 13, Room A (view spoiler)[ worked for railroad, in manufacturing plant, took money to make a bad train (hide spoiler)]

Edith Gaerhardt, Car 13, Room B (view spoiler)[ from Germany, she hit a point where she had to choose between America or Germany and she chose the choice that made her lots of money. She was the nanny and planted the forged documents in the house. terrible. (hide spoiler)]

Judd Dodge, Car 13, Room C (view spoiler)[worked for railroad, desihn team, designed a bad train and Herb tried to stop it but both took money instead (hide spoiler)]

Through 8 PM / 12 hours to go
9 chapters / roughly 75 pages

(view spoiler)[ well. what a terrible group of people
and now I'm equally sad that Dante is there and not his father. his father definitely shouldn't get out of this without a mark but I guess his son will get tangled into this too - fitting since she lost her brother/her father lost his son on the train they blew up

I can't believe they also sabotaged her father. that's wild

interesting to see where this goes from here. are we just going to watch them try to get off the train? justify their reason for what they did? try to kill Anna? (hide spoiler)]

through 11 pm / 9 hours to go
17 chapters / roughly 160 pages

(view spoiler)[ well, I'm a little surprised Anna is surprised they turned to violence. I thought they would try to kill her, honestly. They are about to lose their freedom - of course they will turn on her or each other.

but wow, was it Seamus? that would make me sad - that he acted like he'd go along with her plan and then start to kill them one by one

and obviously the extra guy on the train - plant. but who is he there to kill - he said 6 names? and he scratched one off - so it's the group

could he be sent by Dante's dad? or someone else?
and how did someone know? hmmmm (hide spoiler)]

through 1 A.M. / 6 hours to Chicago
26 chapters / roughly 215 pages

(view spoiler)[ well. . .now we know Reggie is FBI and not there to kill them

but someone killed Edith - but wow, Anna is getting them to confess
at least now she has another aly

but I still don't understand what she would happen. of course they were going to either kill her or kill each other - or both! they don't know the evidence is out there. . .

and now one of them has grabbed her. yikes

and I wonder why she is seeing her brother. that has to be wrong but it doesn't mean there isn't someone else on the train. hmmm. . . (hide spoiler)]

and done

(view spoiler)[

wow, there were so many murderers! although, again, I'm really surprised that she didn't anticipate they would show up with weapons and poison or whatever. I felt like her messages were threats enough that they knew they were coming to something bad. . .

but I did like that it kept me guessing. never thought the FBI agent was in on it! (hide spoiler)]

I can't get to this one until I read two other books by tomorrow night but your first post looks especially helpful. :)

I thought I'd get to read this one yesterday, but watching Lily and Juju took all my time. I took them to my daughter's to swim and we had a blast. I'll be reading this one today. You know I love the lists!

I did actually get some of it read yesterday, so I read through Ch. 7

(view spoiler)[Anna has some evil, wicked thoughts! I'm not sure what she blames them for but jeez!

I wonder why Seamus seems so loyal to her. (hide spoiler)]

Sally Lawrence, Car 12, Room A (view spoiler)[I think it said why they were broken up in to Car 12 and 13 but (if they did) I don't recall why but Anna spearheaded everything so there must be a reason. (hide spoiler)]

Lt. Col. Jack Lapsford, Car 12, Room B(view spoiler)[ Based on what he did, he must be capable of a great deal because that would've taken a lot of organization and thought. I think he's probably pretty smart. (hide spoiler)]

Kenneth Wentworth, Car 12, Room C(view spoiler)[ Wow, if he pulled all the strings and is behind everything PLUS she hates him the most - she must have something awful in store for him. (hide spoiler)]

Herb Pulaski, Car 13, Room A(view spoiler)[Obviously not a good guy if he took money to do what he did. I see why she doesn't like him. (hide spoiler)]

Edith Gaerhardt, Car 13, Room B (view spoiler)[Obviously also a terrible person! (hide spoiler)]

Judd Dodge, Car 13, Room C(view spoiler)[So NONE of these people appear to be good people at all. Lies, greed, deceitfulness, they all deserve to die! OK, just trying to think like Anna. LOL (hide spoiler)]

Through 8 PM / 12 hours to go
9 chapters / roughly 75 pages

(view spoiler)[I agree about Dante. I feel so bad for Anna that her father was killed so violently and then her mother commits suicide by driving off the cliff and right in front of her! How awful!

Yeah, they just want to find a way to get free and be Scott-free too! Interesting, too, that they're all part of a conspiracy spearheaded by Kenneth...right? Dante's father. (hide spoiler)]

Through 11 pm / 9 hours to go
17 chapters / roughly 160 pages

(view spoiler)[ I was surprised that she and Dante had a thing back in the day...a little ironic.

What a coward Jack is, but poor Judd died. I thought it was poison right off the bat, but I was thinking like one of those suicide pills spies use if caught so maybe?

Wow! I agree with you. It was only obvious that they'd turn on each other, if for no other reason just the stressful situation. I like Seamus and it did set it up to make us think he might be the killer. Why else would there be 6 pills and now 5 unless he killed Judd. But at the same time Reggie crossed off Judd's name. So is it possible that Reggie WAS a plant and was paid to kill the 5 of them? But why wouldn't it be 7 and include Anna? And is it possible that Seamus did it and he planned on killing the other 5 plus Anna? I'm not sure but I'm loving the continuous questions that keep popping up. (hide spoiler)]

Through 1 A.M. / 67 hours to Chicago
26 chapters / roughly 215 pages

(view spoiler)[All these "shadow" and "men" and her "brother" are starting to get a bit ridiculous. It was Herb who grabbed her and threatened to slit her throat.

Edith being killed does seem like someone trying to frame Anna. I understand how hard it is when you grew up loving someone and feeling the love reciprocated to just hate them with NO more feelings of love not matter what they did. So when Anna tried to strangle her I understood only because she felt so betrayed by her.

Tommy COULD be alive but why would he have pretended to be dead and why return now?

And FBI Agent Reggie...I still don't trust him. I suspect he's involved somehow. I don't know. I just think he lied about the knife Anna had, lied about himself and he has the gun and opportunity, especially now. (hide spoiler)]

Finished

(view spoiler)[LOL What??? I sure wasn't expecting all of that!

I was sad that Seamus killed himself! He felt like he had no hope, but you never know.

There were too many resurrections! That's what changed my potential rating of 4 stars for me. It made it too unbelievable. (hide spoiler)]

There were (view spoiler)[ a lot of resurrections! It was actually kind of comical - with how many dead and then not dead there were! lol

I agree, this was just a 3 star for me too. I just couldn't get over her inviting them all there and then just assuming nothing would happen (hide spoiler)]

I am hoping to start this on my roadtrip home Wednesday! I'm nervous 😓 😟

Yeah, I really really hope you enjoy it! At the heart, I thought it was an interesting mystery! It just. . there were a few parts I just struggled with, but you may not!!

Chaptee 1-14 (view spoiler)[ Not feeling this one . Could be the twists haven't come yet. And I had a hard time keeping up on who's who (hide spoiler)]

BabyLunLun wrote: "Chaptee 1-14 [spoilers removed]"

yes! the cast list was very big to start! hard to remember who was who but they become pretty unique later so hopefully that will help!

To Ch 9: I have seen quite a few negative reviews for this, but so far, I'm loving it. The set-up has such a classic mystery feel, it's making me nostaglic for the Summer reads of my youth.

I'm a Sager apologist though, loving everything he's written, including his least popular, Survive the Night and Middle of the Night. In his writing, I can tell he's a huge Hitchcock fan, as am I, so maybe that's why his stories work so well for me.

I'm excited to get further in this. What happened to (view spoiler)[Anna's family was really terrible and I can see why she would want to enact revenge, but it can't be that cut and dry 🤔 (hide spoiler)]

To Ch 15: I love this unknown (view spoiler)[passenger, aka Passenger #9, Reggie, has been added to the mix. Not sure I am buying his innocent routine. It can't be an accident he's there, right? And why did he not mention that Anna is concealing a knife!? (hide spoiler)]

To Ch 38: Is it really happening the way Anna is thinking, or the way they are all thinking, or (view spoiler)[is someone from that original train still alive? I'm not trusting anyone or their telling of the tale at the moment. Like Anna dreaming, or hallucinating her brother there, is that just from stress? I'm excited to finish this one. (hide spoiler)]

Trisha wrote: "through 11 pm / 9 hours to go
17 chapters / roughly 160 pages
..."

I thought it was so fun the way (view spoiler)[Reggie, the 9th passenger, suddenly appeared. He thew a real kink in Anna's plan. Agree on Seamus, I am really like him and want him to be true to his word, though I know he has equally as strong motives as Anna, well maybe not that strong, but similar. (hide spoiler)]

Done! I liked it. Not my favorite of his certainly. It didn't have the same level of intrigue and twists, but I still liked the action of it, as well as the setting. I was surprised when (view spoiler)[Sal turned out not to be dead. That was a fun twist! (hide spoiler)]