This Train

James Grady

Publication Date: 16/6/22

Publisher: No Exit Press

SYNOPSIS

The new novel from the acclaimed author of Six Days of the Condor, set on a heart-pounding cross-country train ride.

This Train races us through America’s heartland, carrying secrets. There is treasure in the cargo car, along with an invisible puppeteer. There is a coder named Nora, Mugzy, the yippy dog, and Ross, the too-curious poet. On board, it’s a countdown to murder…

On this train there is a silver madman, a targeted banker, and crises of conscience. This train harbors the “perfect” couple’s conspiracies, the chaos of being a teenager, and parenthood alongside the wows of being nine. There is a widow and a wannabe, and the sleaziest billionaire.

On this train, there is the suicide ticket, the bomb, sex, love, and loneliness. The heist. Revenge. Redemption.

This Train is a ticking clock, roaring through forty-seven fictional hours of non-stop suspense and action, through the challenges of now: Racism. Sexism. Global warming. What it means to be alive.

This train carries all of us. All aboard!

MY REVIEW

All aboard the Empire Builder for a 47 hour train journey from Seattle to Chicago.

On board you will meet an eclectic cast of characters, some with personal struggles and some with dastardly plans. Murder. Robbery. There is a SWAT team on board, guarding something in the baggage car.

We get to know a little about each character. To name a few we have Nora the hacker. Albert the man with the bag. Graham the ‘silver haired werewolf’. Ulysses and his military family; a teenage daughter with teenage angst issues and her 9 year old brother with an active imagination. Ulysses is trying to keep himself together, trying to convince himself he does not have PTSD, with the support of his strong wife. They were my favourite passengers.

We see snippets of the countryside as the train powers along the tracks. 

Clackety-clack.

If you want to read a thriller with a difference, this is for you. It is written in short sharp sentences from a number of narrators. To the point, with not much unnecessary padding. I found it difficult to read at the beginning, then I got into the flow and began to understand the unusual prose. Very cleverly written.

Thank you to Sarah at Oldcastle Books / No Exit Press for inviting me onto the blog tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Grady’s first novel Six Days Of The Condorbecame the classic Robert Redford movie Three Days Of The Condor and the current Max Irons TV series Condor. Grady has received Italy’s Raymond Chandler Medal, France’s Grand Prix Du Roman Noir and Japan’s Baka-Misu literature award, two Regardie’s magazine short story awards, and been a Mystery Writers of America Edgar finalist. He’s published more than a dozen novels and three times that many short stories, been a muckraker journalist and a scriptwriter for film and television. In 2008, London’s Daily Telegraph named Grady as one of “50 crime writers to read before you die.” In 2015, The Washington Post compared his prose to George Orwell and Bob Dylan.