Review: Murder on the Lamplight Express by Morgan Stang

Blurb:

All aboard for mysteries, murders and monsters on the Lamplight Express.

The orders given to Isabeau Agarwal and her partner are simple: ensure the safety of all passengers and crew until point of destination. But on the maiden voyage of this luxury train, nothing is quite what it seems. Isabeau soon discovers why her unique professional skills are needed when the passengers are threatened with a possible monster hiding among them.

But things are never that simple for a Huntress. A passenger is shot dead, and as the train hurtles headlong into desolate moors and a thunderstorm like none other, mayhem breaks loose.

Ten little passengers. The businessman. The attendant. The doctor. The creation. The puppeteer. The tarot reader. The bounty hunter. The actress. The ambassador. The bodyguard. Ten little liars...

...and one murderer.

Review:

Murder on the Or… Lamplight Express! A strong follow up to the prequel; Murder at Spindle Manor. With our Huntress having received a late and urgent telegram to board the maiden voyage of a new luxury train, and with her Sco…Waxwick Yard assistant in tow they literally leap into action and go all guns blazing into another fast paced, page turning fantasy mystery! Just like the first book in this series, nothing is quite what it seems in this world filled with monsters, magic and murder and it is up to our investigators to determine the lies, deception and find out who (or what) killed the passengers!

Once again set in a pseudo-Victorian world, leaning heavily on real world mystery series such as Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, but with added steampunk, wit and more than little eye-rolling puns, Lamplight Express will engage any murder mystery lovers from the first chapter and keep you hooked until it burns from the page-turning speed.

““Now that’s a red herring!” said Mr Homes, picking at his late-night supper. It was a red herring.”

In similar vein to the first book, Stang delivers a number of twists, turns, red herrings and false reveals throughout to not only keep you guessing about the main mystery, but to also add depth and character to the cast as a whole.

Another eclectic range of characters presents itself to us. Very much a comparison to a Poirot movie with the strange and the wonderful of high-society finding themselves trapped on a train, with evil aboard. I did find them unbelievable at times, though the gunslinger was an exciting character to have interaction with our protagonist. She brought out a limited love interest and provided competition in the skills department for Isabeau! The other characters were particularly random and felt rather stereotypical of a period mystery.

I blew through this book in 2 days, and even though it was just 300 pages long, that’s a lot of reading for me to achieve. This illustrates the fast paced nature of this book, and also shows the writing style was easy to follow and just rolled along, like the out of control Lamplight Express itself.

Having mentioned the positives, the book did feel quite formulaic after the first instalment which makes it easier to spot red herrings and upcoming twists/important bits of information. In itself this is probably quite common among mystery writers/series, and it doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment I had. However I will space out the series moving forward to forget some of the tropes and patterns which do give away some of the mysteries.

In conclusion, if like me you enjoy a murder mystery but are predominantly a fantasy reader; this should tick all the boxes. Only the die-hard mystery fans may pick too many holes in the plot as to lose some enjoyment. The throw backs to the classic mystery writers are fun and familiar and with Stang’s wit and humour thrown in, it makes for light hearted and easy read to wile away the autumn darkness!