Death On The Boat Train - John Rhode

Originally published - 1940

My edition - Kindle ebook

I'm not sure why I picked up John Rhode's Death On The Boat-Train, unless it was at some point on a group challenge list that I had good intentions on participating in and then life got in the way. That's usually how my challenge entries go. Please, tell me I'm not alone!


The novel follows the investigations into a suspicious death on, you guessed it, a boat train. An unidentified man has died in a locked train car with no identification to show who he is. Our local CID, Jimmy Waghorn, takes on the case after viewing it as highly irregular, which proves to be true when the body is found to have been poisoned by an injection of ricin. After some quick sleuthing, the body is identified as prominent businessman Sir Hesper Bassenthwaite. Where was he headed and why? Why was someone so wealthy on a boat train dressed in old clothes traveling in disguise? These are the questions Waghorn must answer before being able to find the killer.


I was at first intrigued by the mystery plot as I have always loved locked room mysteries. The plot varies slightly in that the locked room plays only a small piece in the solving of the puzzle. I did end up liking the book, but I had a few issues that were stumbling blocks to a better rating. This is the first John Rhode novel that I have read, and since it was part of the Dr. Priestly series, I expected him to be a pivotal character to the story. However, that role belonged in large part to Jimmy Waghorn. Priestly contributed very little to the overall solution and even came in second to Jimmy's wife, Diana. The character of Jimmy was enjoyable and likable, but surprising nonetheless at his major role in the book. Death On The Boat Train is also one of the classification of mystery novels that lend most of it's time being spent on reviewing ad nauseam the theories of the detectives. Much time is spent on discussion and speculation of every single clue that it became easy to skip entire portions of the text without missing anything significant. After several chapters of little actual action happening, the culprit is finally discovered which of course leads to this person reviewing in detail, once again, their dastardly deeds. 


While it won't go down as the most exciting mystery novel I've read, it is by far not the worst. What it lacked in action it made up for in uniqueness of crime, which I would say is reason enough to give the book a try.

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