I have to clearly say I love the Ishmael Jones books, and this is no exception. Ishmael along with Penny are to be backup guards for a government official, however when the man is murdered right off the bat we get to watch how Ishmael solves this locked door mystery. It is fast moving as they only have an hour to solve it. Good secondary characters and several suspects it all gets figured out. It's the major story arc at the end that gave me my holy crap moment. Looking forward to the next, and I want it now! Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced read.

Night Train to Murder by Simon R. Green, a short quick read. Ishmael and Penny return to ride the rails as a bodyguard to a politician. But when the politician dies and there is suspicion of a psychic involved how will they resolve the murder?

Ishmael Jones isn’t your typical detective. He’s the sole survivor of his alien starship after a crash which left him stranded on Earth. The ship’s transformation machine converted into an adult male human being, and now he works as a detective for an underground group called the Organization whose sole purpose is to keep civilization in the dark regarding the monsters walking among them.

Ishmael and his partner Penny Belcourt are assigned an undercover security job keeping watch over a politician as he rides the night train to his new job, Head of the British Psychic Weapons Division. As you can probably guess from the title, the man they are hired to watch ends up murdered, and Ishmael and Penny must solve the case.

The premise is solid, and interesting enough for me to pick up the book. When we discovered the murdered man, the means in which he was killed, as well as the murder location, my interest was tickled. Those items, along with an alien detective, should have catapulted this mystery into a high action thriller. However, this book is a slow paced and lacks tension.

Once the murder happens, things become a bit redundant and, unfortunately, boring. Ishmael interviews the suspects a few times, spends a lot of time contemplating the events of the night, and occasionally chats with Penny, but there really isn’t a lot of meat to sink your teeth into. We learn about the suspects’ personal lives, which didn’t really garner much sympathy from me despite some rather sad backstories. There’s a bit of action, but not enough to keep me fully engaged.

The dialogue was also problematic. The characters seemed to be talking more to the reader than to each other. They asked too many questions, telling the reader too much information rather than let us figure it out for ourselves. Because of this, conversations seemed forced, information repetitive and overall unrealistic.
I also struggled to connect with Penny. What was her purpose, other than to be the occasional sounding board for Ishmael? She had a role towards the end, but I wonder if her character was even necessary. She seemed more concerned with reading a magazine on the train then solving a mystery.

However, I still find the idea of an undercover detective alien stuck on Earth to be a fun concept. This book is part of a larger series, and while this particular story didn’t work for me, I look forward to giving the series, and Ishmael, another chance.

I inhaled this book as I usually do with Simon Green's Ishmael Jones books.
It's a great example of locked room mystery and it kept me on the edge till the end, keeping me guessing and trying to understand how it could have happened.
It's a great thriller and the paranormal aspect plays a minor role comparing to other books in this series.
Penny and Ishmael are great characters as usual but I also liked the well thought and fleshed secondary characters.
The book closure makes me wish that the next instalment will be out something like tomorrow.
An excellent and gripping read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Synopsis: Ishmael and Penny are back with a new mystery. Asked to guard a jumped up politician on his way to take up as new head of a secret government division, Ishmael and Penny are left interrogating a small first class train carriage when the VIP they're supposed to be protecting is murdered, quite literally with his pants down. With only 56 minutes to solve the case this is one that's going to put even Ishmael's skills to the test!

Review: if you've not heard me wax lyrical about it before, I LOVE the Ishmael Jones series. They're my wonderful guilty pleasure, a concept that shouldn't work but 100% does. If I'm ever in a reading slump these books are what get me back out of it, I love Penny and Ishmael's relationship and the mysteries they solve together and this one was just as good as the others! I'm also loving the hints being dropped about Ishmael's past and hoping all will be revealed soon just as long as it doesn't mean the end of this excellent series!

As per usual another great Ishamel Jones novel that ends on a major cliff hanger! A closed room murder mystery that takes place on a train and is funny, twisty and full of the normal Simon R Green wit. Wish he'd bring in a few familiar characters, however.

The release of a new installment in Simon R. Green's Ishmael Jones Series is always enormously exciting. Ishmael, alien-turned-human since 1963, and his partner Penny Belcourt, are two of my favorite literary series characters. Author Green combines science fiction, urban fantasy, paranormal, and Noir crime into an always fascinating mix.


This time, it's a classic "locked-room" assassination, committed just feet from Jones and Penny, who had been ordered to prevent exactly that. Four suspects remain, all with unbeatable allies; who could have done it, and how?