Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again.

Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again?

All aboard for . . . Murder on the Christmas Express.

Murder On The Christmas Express features eighteen characters all stuck together on the sleeper train from Euston Station, London to Fort William, Scotland which takes a total of 12hrs 45mins (normally without bad weather) and stops at 19 stations, though due to a delay and bad weather, this train is only scheduled to stop seven times.

Onboard amongst the vast amount of characters is Roz Parker a former police detective who is travelling to see her daughter who has gone into labour early. We also meet influencer Meg who we know from the prologue dies inside her locked cabin. Meg is travelling with her boyfriend Grant who is abusive and nasty to her.

Among the other passengers, there is a team of four quizzers, a family of six, an old lady travelling with her son and cat, a stowaway, and a whole host of others. All become suspects when Meg’s body is discovered and two more die not long afterward meaning that Roz has to jump back into detective mode as help is hours away.

The story flows well and the chapters are short. I can’t say any of the characters were particularly likeable, even Roz got on my nerves with her many flashbacks and self-pitying over not being there for her daughter as often as she should have. Plus, she recounts a sexual assault on numerous occasions so be warned if this is triggering to you.

It takes a long time for the plot to really get going, from delays at Euston and lots of moaning in the waiting area to everyone annoying one another when they first get on the train to then partying together. The deaths don’t happen for a long time, I think around the halfway mark, if I remember righty.

Overall, Murder On The Christmas Express is a decent festive read it just wasn’t anything like I was expecting. I was expecting more grit and thrilling moments that would have me on edge, instead it felt more like a slow-burn drama.

Alexandra (AK) Benedict is a bestselling, award-winning writer of short stories, novels and scripts. Educated at Cambridge, Sussex and Clown School, Alexandra has been an indie-rock singer, an actor, an RLF Fellow and a composer for film and TV, as well as teaching and running the prestigious MA in Crime Thrillers at City University. She is now a full-time writer and creative coach.

As AK Benedict, she writes acclaimed short stories, high-concept novels and award-winning audio drama for Big Finish, Audible UK, Audible US and BBC Sounds among others. She won the Scribe Award for her Doctor Who radio drama, The Calendar Man, and was shortlisted for the eDunnit Novel Award for The Beauty of Murder and the BBC Audio Drama Podcast Award for Children of the Stones. Her Christmas mysteries, The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express, were both bestsellers, and The Christmas Murder Game was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.

Alexandra lives on the south coast of England with writer Guy Adams, their daughter, Verity, and dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.