With A Vengeance

All aboard for a tense and twisty, locked room historical murder mystery  set on a non-stop train in the 1950's.

With twists and many reveals along the way, this book kept my attention the entire trip! Readers tag along on a luxury non-stop train ride to Chicago where a group of people are given a mysterious invitation from someone out for vengeance. 

The cast is rather large to give readers several potential culprits, but I had no  problem remembering who was who. Sager dropped reveals throughout the story  with characters' pasts and motivations that gives the reader a better understanding of how this group of people are connected and what secrets lurk between them.

My only wee beef is that I had to suspend disbelief in a few over-the-top scenes. I could see a couple of them coming and muttered to myself 'Don't do it. Don't go there, Riley!' but alas, go there he did. It made for great action scenes, but these unrealistic elements were a bit distracting to me.

Known for this darker thrillers, this was a nice change of pace and Sager excelled at trying his hand at the locked room whodunnit mystery genre. This story about revenge and pasts that come back to haunt you is getting mixed reviews, but I thought it was entertaining and gripping from the first page to the last. 

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Riley Sager

Genre: Suspense, Locked Room Mystery

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Dutton

First Published: June 10, 2025

Read: June 2-7, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.