A Dangerous Train of Thought: A gripping crime, golden age murder mystery from multimillion bestseller author of A Fatal Obsession, Faith Martin, to read in 2026! by Faith MartinMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sir Bayard Cherville and his (much younger and very beautiful) wife Lady Sybil have invited houseguests to their home in Yorkshire, Cleeves Lea Manor. But at the last minute, and with some malice, Sir Bayard has invited Bill Endicott, a charming Adonis-like single man, to the party, which consists of: Elizabeth and Bernadette Rowe (a mother and daughter, Elizabeth was at school with Sybil), Agnes Warren (a middle-aged nervy spinster to whom they owed a favour), Roger and Daphne Potts-Gibbon (he a wealthy self-made man, she the daughter of a former archbishop), and finally, Arbie (a young rather indolent man, the author of two rather successful books entitled the Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost Hunting) and Val, his childhood friend and self-appointed assistant. Arbie is the 'celebrity' that has been invited to the party, with the promise that there is a local legend of a ghostly railway signalman who can be seen waving his lamp. Frankly, Arbie's first book was a bit of a laugh, and mainly consisted of him staying in various hotels and country houses making half-hearted attempts to see the local ghosts, but now Val has got involved he is expected to a lot of actual leg-work.
When Arbie and Val arrive at the Manor it is clear that there is a fair bit of tension between the parties, Sir Bayard and his wife appear to have argued, and several of the guests appear to be ignoring Bill, who is flirting rather heavily with poor Agnes. However, Arbie does not expect to find Bill's body in the library the following morning next to an empty champagne glass, a bottle of champagne, and a rather odd-looking suicide note.
Meanwhile, Arbis discovers from his host that there is not one, but two, local ghost legends, the other involving a devil train!!
This was another cracking cosy murder mystery. Everyone has a motive and yet when the murderer is revealed (because of course it isn't suicide) it all falls cleverly into place. I am glad that Faith Martin has toned-down her portrayal of Val as being stupid. IF (and yes I did mean to capitalise it) Faith Martin's end game is for Val and Arbie to get together (and it may not be) then having him be extraordinarily bright under all the sloth while she always gets it wrong is a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, if you love a good country house murder mystery look no further.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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