THE MAIN CHARACTER

Goldis’ metamystery takes inspiration from one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories.

In The Chateau (2023), Goldis lured readers into a locked-room murder mystery, a favorite Christie plot device, setting the tale in Provence. Her latest twisty tale of deception takes place, in part, aboard the newly restored Orient Express, and it’s as much a colorful travelogue as a tale of suspense. Rory Aronov is ensconced in the luxury train’s most expensive compartment courtesy of the reclusive bestselling author Ginevra Ex. But three days before Rory boards the train, we witness Ginevra hovering over a dead body. It’s a cinematic and bloody scene that immediately pulls the reader in. The trip, along the west coast of Italy, is a thank-you gift from Ginevra because Rory was the inspiration for the author’s most recent novel. Ginevra has written many books; each time, she buys a real person’s backstory, fictionalizes it, and molds it into a bestseller. So why, then, is Rory’s brother, Max, on the train, as well as her former fiance, Nate, and her friend Caroline? And why have copies of Ginevra’s new book been stolen before Rory and her companions can read them? Is someone toying with them? Narrating the book in alternating chapters, Goldis’ travelers are provocatively unreliable, and the sense of uncertainty they bring to the story laces it with foreboding and danger. The purple-haired Ginevra is equally unreliable, and as her backstory unfolds, we realize she may be connected to Rory and company; the only question is how. Goldis unceasingly pits her characters against each other, just as Ginevra does in her novel, and the parallels between Ginevra’s novel and Goldis’ build delicious tension and drama.

Grab your suitcase and board the Orient Express for a trip you won’t soon forget.