Murder on the Orient Espresso

• Book: Fiction
• Author: Sandra Balzo
• Genre: Mystery
• Published: 2013
• My rating: 3 stars

Maggy Thorsen and her boyfriend, Jake Pavlik, attend a writer’s retreat together, where Jake is attending as a forensic expert guest speaker. Before the main event, the hosts take the attendees on a short train ride through Florida’s Everglades. Each attendee has be given the role of one of the characters from Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”, and they have dressed the part. During the ride they are supposed to re-enact the story, but when the main speaker turns up dead, Jake hosts real interviews to get to the bottom of it.

Combined with train tracks that may or may not be sturdy, giant snakes that eat anything, and no food (the trip was only supposed to take 3 hours), the stranded group warily hangs together, knowing there is a killer among them.

This was a quick but fun read. The story moved at a decent pace, and kept me guessing until the end.