Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an Reader's Advanced copy of this book I truly do appreciate it so much.

Agatha's husband has bought her a first class train ticket on a scenic six hour train ride from Toronto to Montreal as a gift. A one day writing retreat so she can get some serious work done on her new book. The train is the perfect place to be somewhat productive, with only a couple of other passengers, plenty of snacks and drinks, and the beautiful views of the mountains and snow.

Agatha however has other plans for her day out, plans that are derailed (thank goodness). The train gets derailed it breaks down in the middle of the frigid Canadian woods and one of the passenger's dies quietly in their seat. A seemingly pleasant morning turns into a fight for survival against an unseen enemy. Will any of them make it out alive? Read to find out... (sorry I had too).

This book sounded so interesting, it was giving Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express vibes which I enjoyed.

The premise sounded interesting and it wasn't until the 50% mark that it then went downhill from there. The fact that she blamed her husband for her wanting to cheat is what really dug the nail into the coffin for me. She said something along the lines of "he bought me the train ticket which is forcing my hand to cheat on him, he did this to himself" or something like that. That's when I stopped reading and I couldn't go any further into the story than that. You are the one wanting to cheat. Your husband has nothing to do with you wanting to cheat on him. That part is what really made me hate Agatha enough to stop reading. She was also obsessed with Bludestone for some reason, like who gives a crap what shoes these people want to wear it's not like you are wearing them.

I think the best part of this entire book is the cover and it's so sad that it's wasted on a book with a plot like this. The cover is stunning, and by far I think my favourite part of the book. I loved the cover and the fact that the book was set in Canada but other than those things the book kind of fell flat for me. Happy Reading!!!!!

6:40 To Montreal promises to be a thrilling story in close quarters as a snowstorm forces the main character Agatha to spend more time on her train than she anticipated. What I expected to be an edge of my seat kind of feeling, unfortunately did fall a little flat for me. The characters the reader gets to meet were a little bit to off putting and obvious for my taste, the plosttwists were not entirely unanticipated for me personally and while I usually keep powering on in the ever present hope of an ending that suddenly makes me love a book with its twists and turns, this one rather manifested my opinion that this book simply was not for me.
If you as a reader don’t need to form a connection to the characters like I do, you still might enjoy this one a lot. Maybe I just read too many thrillers of this kind to not be surprised (except by the ending, which … did not help in favour of the book). Maybe I just need to like at least one person I’m reading about instead of finding them all utterly insufferable – it might be me, is what I’m trying to say.
This book is well-written in terms of grammar, choice of words and dialogue – the way chapters were structured was unfortunately not entirely to my taste and I couldn’t help but feel a little bored at times. The conflicts of some people on the carriage felt too inconsequential for me and I had the feeling of small drama blown up way out of proportions.
This book might be a great choice for people, who are still getting into this genre and don’t want to feel utterly overwhelmed by gore and horror. I think newer readers to thrillers might enjoy this one.

this was a very very good book! It kept me relaxed and hopeful in the beginning, but the took a scary turn. It kept me on the edge of my seat through the middle and end of the book. The locked train murder mystery / natural mystery was great!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Agatha’s husband buys her a first class ticket to a scenic winter route to Montreal. Where she can take advantage of the quiet time and write her highly anticipated novel. But the trip is far from quiet and peaceful. The train has derailed and they are locked in… a fellow passenger dies in his seat. But now they are locked in their club car with a murderer.

While I did enjoy this mysterious train ride, Im left with the need of wanting more. I wanted to connect with the main character and her journey.

Thank you, NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Goodreads (Brenda (jadore_2read))

With thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved the opening chapters of this book: a woman prepares to leave her house early one morning and from the way the first-person narrator is describing her planned day-long train trip (a Christmas gift from her self-congratulatory husband, who's nudging her to work on her next book), it appears that she may not be planning to return.

Once seated in her business class compartment, which is sparsely populated, she deals with the misogyny of a seatmate, witnesses a car crash outside the window as the train whizzes past a hapless family, and then notices, to her horror, that her stalker is aboard.

All of this is intriguing and swiftly paced. The narrator, a successful writer who found fame in a genre she now seems to despise, is elliptical about why she is fleeing her home, but something is deeply wrong.

And the stalker? It turns out she believes the novelist stole her life story.

From there, alas, at least for me, the novel's momentum stalled, both literally and figuratively: the train gets stuck on the tracks, and then a series of incidents unfold.

There's a death, but no one seems terribly bothered by the loss, although the prospect that it was a murder accomplished by unlikely means briefly livens the proceedings.

A young man's health condition suddenly worsens, and his mother panics.

The patience of the hyper-competent female staff member who serves meals and ensures passenger safety frays.

The plot comes to seem more like a loosely connected series of events--and then, and then--then a closely plotted mystery.

And the big reveal is disappointing and improbable.

I enjoyed this book. It was a bit wordy for my taste, but the story really captivated me. I didn’t see the twist coming at the end. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced reader copy!

6:40 to Montreal is a locked room mystery thriller told from the perspective of writer Agatha as she boards the train to Montreal on a first class ticket. It’s a gift from her husband to help combat her writer’s block, but Agatha has other plans which quickly get derailed when the train breaks down in the middle of the snowy Canadian landscape and a passenger dies under mysterious circumstances.


The Good Stuff

Despite some of the flaws and the areas that lacked some improvement, Jurczyk was able to hook me with her suspenseful writing, subtle foreshadowing and engaging premise. The protagonist gave me just enough information to keep turning the pages, eager to find out what really lay behind the enigmatic subtext. The book slowly revealed the truth behind Agatha’s relationship with one of the passengers and her real plans for the train journey.

In addition, I felt that Jurczyk managed to create distinct characters that were fleshed out with their own quirks and dark traits. It kept me guessing on who the real perpetrator could be.


The Not So Good Stuff

Whilst the writing itself was coherent and comprehensible, I felt that the story would have benefitted from another pass on pacing to tighten up the plot. There were a lot of detours and rants about random memories that at best became useful later on and at worst really pulled you away from engaging with the story. I’m not saying Jurczyk shouldn’t have utilised flashbacks, but I did feel that she relied too heavily on them. I found myself skimming those passages because they dragged on, didn’t seem relevant at the time, and pulled me out of the zone.

Moreover, I didn’t feel like I was rooting for anyone. The protagonist was insufferable and not interesting enough for me to care about her journey. Some of the other characters were more likeable, but again - I just didn’t feel any particular way about them. They could have all died, and I wouldn’t have cared.

Mostly, I just didn’t like the plot twist. It was a nice idea, but you have to really suspend your belief to accept the possibility of what Jurczyk was trying to do. Without going into any spoilers, it just didn’t make sense for that person to be the perpetrator. I’m not saying the reveal came out of nowhere. In fact, it was something you could have guessed from the beginning, but the execution was just not realistic.


Rating

⭑⭑⭑⭒⭒




This review will be published on Goodreads and my blog a month before release.




www.theshameshelf.com

Such a fun read! A wife/mother/author boards a train (a gift from her husband), she has a mysterious plan in motion and you can’t help but wonder the whole time what exactly her plan is.

When a snow storm brings them to abrupt stop in the middle of nowhere the passengers soon learn this is the least of their problems.

I just love a locked door murder mystery related to extreme weather conditions! I loved how each character had a distinct personality and how the character pool was limited to a small number amongst the first class portion of the train, I find it’s always the “upper class” who offer a higher level of entertainment due to their distain for ever being even slightly inconvenienced 😂

We had multiple storylines going on within the main storyline and I liked the main characters propensity for her mind to wander and take the reader on a journey within her inner Dialogue, thought process and memory flashbacks.

It was hard to pinpoint a suspect and I knew while reading that there would be lots of twists in store.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the authors previous book but I’m so glad I gave her another shot because this book had all my favourite components to an interesting and entertaining murder mystery plot.

Thank you to poisoned pen press and the author for the earc!

Publish date: September 25th

Sadly, this book did not do it for me. It was pretty dull and predictable. It moved really slowly. There were a few times I wanted to give up because it was just moving so slowly. The plot twist was at the very end of the novel with a small explanation, which of course made it very rushed.

I really liked the Canadian setting, though! It was cool to read something where I at least know of the places.

I love a closed door who dunnit - and there's no better (or more iconic) setting than a train. Throw in a snow storm and you have the perfect setting for a mystery.

Agatha's husband gifts her a first-class ticket on a scenic train from Toronto to Montreal for a peaceful writing retreat. But when the train breaks down in the frozen Canadian wilderness and a passenger mysteriously dies, her quiet trip turns into a fight for survival against an unknown threat. Will anyone make it out alive?

There was a good portion where I was super intrigued and wondering what was going to happen next. A little slow in places but overall steady pacing.

There was only one twist really - at the end - and I found it a little disappointing. You really need to suspend belief.

Also there are some good supporting characters, but I can't say I liked the MC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as an ARC and unfortunately it fell off the rails and was a complete train wreck in my honest opinion. I was intrigued until about 50% of the way in and then it was just painful. It was like the author was like oh we need some plot twist and an outlandish ending but none of the plot twists were good and forget the ending ! I am so sorry but it was a complete no for me.

I didn’t like this book and if it wasn’t for the fact that it was from netgally I would have DNFed it. But I disliked the characters, the incorporation of someone battling cancer was difficult to read and I didn’t enjoy this book.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley. I’m sure there are many others who will disagree and find this book entertaining, unfortunately I was not one of them.

Eva Jurczyk’s *6:40 to Montreal* is a locked-room thriller that traps you on a snowbound train with a dead body and a whole lot of secrets. Agatha St. John, a writer with a blockbuster debut and a bad case of writer’s block, boards the 6:40 from Toronto to Montreal for a one-day “retreat.” But when a blizzard stalls the train in the Canadian wilds and a passenger turns up dead—thumb severed, no less—it’s less inspiration, more survival. Jurczyk’s prose is tight and chilly, dripping with claustrophobic vibes. Agatha’s a prickly gem, but the twists can feel a bit over-the-top. Still, that final gut-punch reveal? Worth the ride. 4 stars—great if you love a snowy, murderous puzzle.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I liked the premise of this story and it got off to a strong start, but sadly it quickly turned into a slow slog through the proverbial snow.
Our main character Agatha, is on a day trip by train to work on her novel. We learn that it was a gift from her husband to shake her out of her depression resulting from a terminal cancer diagnosis. We learn that she has some “other “plans”.
I could see that the author was trying to do a character study on how people behave when trapped and societal norms are removed. There were brilliant moments when the story almost becomes literary fiction and a study of the human condition rather a mystery or thriller.
Unfortunately, for me it didn’t achieve either. There are whole long scenes where absolutely nothing happens. We learn what they are eating, how intensely Agatha dislikes the men’s footwear “Blunder soles”. The chapters are titled by the time and we feel the tedium intensely, to the point where I started marking “ something happens” . Nothing of much interest happens until 9:30(22%) then nothing again until 11:15 (34%), then 1:15. (39%), 2:30(45%) etc. I think the author was trying to give the readers the feeling of being trapped, which I did -but not in an exciting way.

From a mystery standpoint the ending was a total letdown and from a literary standpoint the “who done it” was not fitting of the character as developed.

The cover of the book and the general premise of the story both intrigued me. Then I started reading and … well, pardon the pun, but the story about a train trip fell “off the rails”.

First who gives away a train trip to write a book as a Christmas gift to their spouse? And how does a car on a disabled train go completely incommunicado for 10 hours. And why does a diabetic teenager travel without insulin. And why would someone intent on committing murder in Canada in December think the best way to that was smuggle a poisonous sider on a train in a mesh laundry bag. And … then .. did Teddie try to kill Agatha and if so, why are the still together in the end. Or, if he didn’t, what actually happened to drive the plot?

Sorry to say but the best part of this book was the cover .. I didn’t enjoy it at all.

Great book. Couldn't put it down. Stayed up all night trying to get to the end. Five stars. Thank you for letting me read this book in advance.

Agatha is on a 6-hour train from Toronto to Montreal in an attempt to get some writing done. The train breaks down in a snowstorm and the few passengers in Agatha's car are trapped together in the middle of nowhere. If that is not bad enough, one of the passengers is discovered to be dead. The ending to this made no sense to me and felt full of holes. I enjoyed the story up to that point, but it just fell apart for me at the ending. 2.5 rounded to 3 stars.

Yup, I'm a total cover junkie. I saw this one and was like, "Oh, pretty! Must read!" So, I dove in with ridiculously high expectations. Because, you know, a beautiful cover always equals an amazing story... right? But let's be real: 6:40 to Montreal is not your typical mystery. Instead, it's more about how a bunch of strangers react when they're stuck together in a crazy situation. The book tries to be a clever, psychological thriller, but it ends up being a messy, plot-hole-ridden disappointment. The characters are dull and unlikable, especially Agatha, who spends most of the book complaining about her life. The train setting is the only somewhat interesting aspect of the book, but even that gets old after a while. It's a slow burn, folks, and I mean SLOW. I had to wrestle myself to the finish line. Honestly, this book is just your run-of-the-mill, mediocre thriller. It's not terrible- just don't expect it to blow your mind.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this! This was my first intro into the author, but I felt that this book was fast paced and well written! I will read more in the future!

Wow, this is a trainwreck, pun fully intended. Look, the premise is fine, and while the writing is not great (it's pretty standard thriller/murder mystery kind of writing) that's also not the biggest issue. While reading this I was perpared to give this a 3 star rating.

And then we get the resolution, and the stupidity of it all hits like a truck (or a train, in this case). I thought that I'd get answers to the mysteries, but I didn't expect to get answers that don't make sense, which in turn led to even more questions. Come on, the hallmark of a good murder mystery is a satisfying answer, and this? Utter rubbish.

The whole story is absurd, filled with inconsistencies and illogical decisions by characters you struggle to relate to. It's confusing, with plot details that were mentioned and then dropped without explanation. Early in the book Agatha witnessed a car crash that no one else saw. Was it a hallucination on her part? But then it was quickly forgotten in favour of the murder mystery... which was then dropped to follow the travails of the dying Rupinder and what they could do to save him.

Incidentally, Agatha was very motivated to save Rupinder because he's a young man and Agatha thought about her own little boy. This went on and on, and I kept thinking, "You don't have to justify not wanting someone to die, okay?" Like, I don't even have kids and I'll still want to save that guy! But perhaps this was meant to highlight how shitty Agatha is as a person; I just struggled to like her throughout the entire book.

I kept reading in the hopes that the ending will tie everything together. Instead, the pieces of the puzzle wouldn't fit even if you try supergluing them together, and even then the whole thing falls apart if you as much as breathe in its direction. Needless to say, I'll have to get to the spoilers to further discuss this.

**spoilers ahead; please skip to the last of my comments for a summary**

**spoilers alert**
Turns out the whole thing was a ploy to... make Agatha feel less depressed?! 'Teddy hadn't been trying to kill me. He'd been trying to recuscitate me.' What the...? Bleargh, okay, but dubious motivations aside, I have so many more questions. How did Teddy manage to get on the train as a trainee? I knew he had the uniform, but wouldn't the train company make arrangements for the training session? You mean you can just show up in their uniform, board their train, and start learning right away? Or did he kidnap an actual trainee and take his uniform because at one point it was mentioned that the uniform is ill-fitting?

Also, it feels like the whole murder mystery was left behind after a while. How did Teddy sneak the spider aboard, given his great fear of spiders? How did he ensure that it wouldn't kill Agatha, or anyone else for that matter? Or did he not care who the spider killed, as long as someone died? Was Finch picked beforehand? There was a whole bit in the book about how troublesome it is to handle the spider, but dude just used a mesh bag? Then there's also the question of how he managed to avoid being seen by his wife and Cyanne, both of whom knew him for YEARS? Agatha had also seen him from behind (and noticed his shoes and uniform) but she couldn't recognize her own husband's silhouette? The author's excuse for that was, 'How closely do you ever look at the people who serve you things?' Uhhh, I do notice the people serving me things because I try to look at them and thank them when they put food on my table? Plus, it was a weird excuse given how Agatha noticed so many details about Dorcas, who was serving her!

Incidentally, what's with Dorcas? Was she part of Teddy's convoluted plan? If so why was she so dedicated to keeping the passengers locked in the carriage, even when a young man was literally dying? There was some sort of weird reasoning about her wanting to keep the peace, but... I don't get it and I'm not buying it.

Part of the tension in the story came from the fact that no one knew what was happening or when the train will start again. But here's a big question: were there no PA systems in the train? In such a situation where something serious has caused the train to be delayed for hours, presumably there will be plenty of announcements about it. Also you're telling me that throughout the entire ordeal, no staff member from the other cars tried to come to their carriage to check on the situation?

Plus, why would anyone buy the whole 'the doors are automatically locked' excuse? Even the emergency exit? The book kept going on and on about 'there's no power, so the doors wouldn't open', and I was like, "WHAT KIND OF STUPID ENGINEER DESIGN EMERGENCY DOORS THAT WOULDN'T OPEN WITHOUT ELECTRICITY?!" How come no one figured out that there must be a manual override? Also it took Agatha forever to think about breaking the window, even though there was a scene about it with Dorcas giving a safety briefing. You're telling me that all the other characters never thought about the windows, that none of them happened to glance at the hammer/glass breaker (which are usually placed in a highly visible spot)? Not even Jeff, who has taken this train multiple times? Jesus.

Then at one point Jeff volunteered to wander into the snowy vicinity to try to get help for Rupinder. In the hopes of finding a village or something, he ended up being left behind as the train started moving again. But the whole idea is ridiculous because THEY'RE ALL ON A FUCKING TRAIN. Why walk AWAY from the train when you can walk ALONG it to get assistance from the other cars? Why wander off into some unknown territory where you can't see a single house, when the chances of getting help from the staff and passengers are certainly higher? By the way, prior to this the characters also discussed getting help from the other cars, so it's dumb that this idea was just dropped in favour of having Jeff die pointlessly and conveniently.

Speaking of dumb characters, there's Cyanne, who's possibly the worst of the lot. When Agatha pointed out that they could get out by breaking a window, Cyanne said, "We will be charged with destruction of property." THAT'S NOT A THING IN AN EMERGENCY, CYANNE. I don't even get the point of this character because she's just annoying in outrageous ways.

**end of spoilers**

This book is a solid example of what happens when an author has an idea and is willing to twist the story and the characters in an unnatural way to get to it. The worst thing about this book was that the real stinker came towards the end. This meant that I read the whole book only to realize it's all bullshit. So here I'm doing everyone a favour and tell you that if you're looking for a solid murder mystery, perhaps skip this and read the vastly superior 'Murder on the Orient Express' by Agatha Christie instead, which this work was obviously referencing (the main character being a writer called Agatha, and there being a murder on a train in a snowy setting).