The second book in the Lamplight Murder Mysteries series changes the location from an inn to a train. The setup is remarkably similar. Huntress Isabeau Agarwal boards a train at the last minute, the very last minute, to ensure the safety of the passengers to their destination. She doesn’t know which passenger she needs to protect and from what. Fortunately, in addition to Isabeau and her team, there are only ten other passengers. The trip is two nights. This should be easy for someone as experienced as Isabeau.
It isn’t.
When the list is a do-gooder who has ticked off everyone on the train, her bodyguard with a mysterious past, a puppeteer with a creepy marionette, a fading actress, a mad doctor, the mad doctor’s human she has created, an efficient bounty hunter, an enigmatic future teller, the owner of the train and his one employee (his wife), you are bound for trouble. If something can go wrong on this journey, it goes really wrong.
If you enjoyed the first novel in this series and want something in the same vein, you got it. This has all the atmosphere and trappings of Murder at the Spindle Inn that made me insta-buy this book. All the elements of a good mystery—secrets, troubled pasts, misdirection—with all the elements of a great gaslamp—spooky train, supernatural rules, Victorian setting, and callbacks to classic literary creatures. As in the first, Isabeau is on double duty solving a mystery and hunting a monster. Perhaps they are one in the same? It’s up to Isabeau to find out. Unlike most sequels, this novel matches the first in setting, characters, and creepiness.
Is there a problem with this novel? If there is, it’s too much of a good thing. The elements of the first novel and the second novel match almost one to one. There are surprises in this novel, but they’re similar to the first novel. Don’t expect variation except in three instances, and those three instances make the difference. First, the murderer reveal is unique. Second, some world-building occurs when it’s revealed to Isabeau why she was sent to board the train. Third, the Lamplight Express is in motion, which sets up a wonderful cliffhanger for our hero. I also enjoyed the supernatural creature in this one—absolutely phenomenal.
Should you read it? If you fall into the camp that you want very similar novels in a series, then yes.Too many reviews complain that the second novel deviates too much from the first novel. Murder on the Lamplight Express lives up to, and goes further than, the first novel in the series. If you loved the first one, you’ll love this one, too.