Someone recommended this book to me — I wish I could remember who. But maybe it’s just as well that I can’t.

Written by one Peter King, not Agatha Christie, it was clearly inspired by Christie’s famous detective novel. But she can rest easy; her reputation has nothing to fear. It’s not that Dine and Die on the Danube Express is exactly a bad mystery, just that it’s rather meh. The cover promises a lot more than the story can deliver. Do note that it’s a “Gourmet Detective Mystery”; I haven’t read anything else in that series, nor anything else by Peter King for that matter, so I had no particular expectations on that score.

Before I started to read, however, I did have a few assumptions:

• I assumed that the Danube Express was not-so-subtly inspired by the Orient Express.
• I assumed that it is completely fictional.
• I assumed that there would be a focus on gourmet meals.
• I assumed that all the “strangers” on the train would turn out to know each other.
• I assumed that they would all have a collective motive to murder one of their fellow passengers.

Most of these assumptions turned out to be wrong. Only the first was correct. Much to my surprise, the Danube Express turns out to be real! And both the real one and the one in the story are quite explicitly based on the Orient Express. For a mere $12,500 (probably more at this point) you too can buy a ticket for a three-day trip through Central Europe. It’s not clear whether a murder is included.

Categories: Books