6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk: REVIEW

Synopsis

Agatha is an author dealing with depression-induced writer’s block, so her husband comes up with a seemingly perfect solution to get her juices flowing again: he gives her a train ticket from Toronto to Montreal. Six hours on a train with stunning views to inspire her and no wi-fi to distract her… how could it fail? But then a snowstorm hits, the train breaks down, and someone in her train car winds up dead. Suddenly her empty feeling of waiting to die is replaced by a fight to survive. But how and why did the passenger die? And will the others all make it off the train alive?

My Review

About halfway through this book, I thought to myself, “This is either one of the best things I’ve ever read or one of the worst.” Once I’d read the last page, I settled on “one of the best.” Unfortunately, judging from most other early reviews I’ve seen, I’m in the minority there.

Here’s where I think the marketing for this book might not be doing it any favours: THIS IS NOT A MURDER MYSTERY. The official summary makes it sound like an Agatha Christie-style death-on-a-train mystery, but honestly, the mystery aspect is secondary. This is more of a literary psychological thriller with just a twist of weird-girl-fiction for flavour. AND IT’S A MASTERPIECE. (And so Canadian!)

Twisty ride

Okay, here’s the thing – there are a lot of twists in this book. At first I wondered why on earth the author thought it was necessary to insert problem after problem and plot twist after plot twist, to the point that I actually started to laugh each time the story took a new turn. Was it terrible writing or satire?

Towards the end, it became clear to me that it’s satire. The main character is a mystery author herself, and her dark humour in the situations she finds herself in is a dead giveaway. But even more than satire, I think Jurczyk is intentionally subverting the reader’s expectations by oversaturating the story with red herrings and, as Agatha observes, puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit together. The genius of it all is that they do fit together, quite perfectly. I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t read it yet, but the answers are staring Agatha and the reader in the face the whole time. I love a major twist that hides in plain sight!

Conclusion

I highly recommend giving this one a try if you’re into unconventional literature. But I highly recommend giving it a miss if you just want to read it for the mystery.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing this ARC for review consideration. I’m a bit late with my review, so it’s already available in bookstores, including here on Bookshop.org*.
*As an affiliate, I’ll receive a small commission from any purchase made through this link.