4 Stars - A Gripping, Twisty Ride with High Stakes

With a Vengeance is another fast-paced, twist-filled thriller from Riley Sager that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Set on a luxurious overnight train journey, the book follows Anna Matheson, a woman on a mission to seek retribution for the destruction of her family. She's lured the six people responsible onto the train, with plans to confront them and finally see justice served.

The suspense is high from the very beginning as Anna's carefully laid plan unravels after one of the passengers is murdered, and it quickly becomes clear that someone else is taking matters into their own hands. The concept of a deadly game on a confined train adds to the tension, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia. The twists come fast, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, Sager pulls the rug out from under you, keeping the suspense alive until the very end.

Anna’s internal struggle between seeking revenge and protecting her enemies is a compelling layer that gives depth to her character. However, at times, her decisions can be a bit hard to believe, and some of the secondary characters felt a bit underdeveloped. Still, these minor drawbacks don’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the story.

If you love thrillers with complex characters, unexpected twists, and a tense, high-stakes atmosphere, With a Vengeance is a must-read. It’s a thrilling ride that doesn’t let up, making it a perfect choice for fans of Riley Sager’s signature style.

"Like a queen bee hunting those who destroyed the hive, she wanted them to feel her sting."

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. At first I was struggling to get into it but as soon as I did, I read the majority of it in one sitting.

This book was filled with twists and turns and a moral dilemma that had me thinking what I would do in this situation. I like the locked room/train mystery and felt the suspense throughout the whole book.

I'm glad I enjoyed this because I did not like Middle of the Night and needed Riley to redeem himself. And he did!

Riley Sager... what can I say! The premise of this book sounded SO good when I read it!

Sager is a master of plot twists...and this book delivers. So many twists and turns, and so many character storylines to follow. The timeline is...interesting- set in 1954- its hard to remember sometimes that this novel is meant to be set in the past. It reads like the setting is current-and I'm not sure that the time period enhances the story at all.

The many characters in this book are ALL unlikeable. I didn't find myself caring overmuch what happened to any of them,

If you're a fan of the game CLUE, you'll likely enjoy this title! It is entertaining, if nothing else.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

Did Riley write this? So slow and so boring, I skimmed this to get to the end. Too many characters with backstories and motivations that never quite land, and the plot holes pile up fast. Didn't really care about the main character so it made it hard to want to read on and finish. The story is so convoluted that it's hard to care at all. Not the usual Riley Sager book that I recommend to my patrons at the library. Very disappointing.

Definitely not a typical Riley Sager. With A Vengeance was an Agatha Christie type locked room mystery, but definitely not up to Agatha Christie standards. I honestly thought it was silly after awhile.

How far will you go for vengeance on those who take everything from you? Are there any lines you won't cross? Anna faces those exact questions when her big master plan is thrown off track in a way she never saw coming. This story unfolds on a 13-hour train ride between Philadelphia and Chicago with twists and turns that will keep you guessing and wondering who if anyone you can trust. While I didn't like any of the characters, I did feel for a few of them and wanting to know how it was going to play our kept me reading. I am giving it four stars because even if I can't say I enjoyed it, it did keep me interested until the end and the end was better than I was afraid it would be.

All aboard the train, Philadelphia to Chicago, no stops. The stage is set as six individuals board the train where they will pay for their crimes. The time has come to answer for what they did. Anna can take the pain she's been carrying around no longer. She wants answers and she wants the guilty to pay. What will follow will not be what she planned. Someone amongst them has other plans of revenge. When one passenger is found dead, it will become clear they are not safe. Anna will have to work to stay alive and keep those who she blames alive through the night.

Riley Sager writes very clever characters. People who have something to lose but also something to gain. Anna feels that she has been wrong and she makes a stance to do something about it. Could she have done it differently sure, but revenge is really a wicked dish. The locked room setting had you guessing to find the guilty party with Sager level twists around each corner. Was it my absolute favorite book, no, but all the same absolutely worth the read. Especially as Sager continues to explore different time periods within his writing. Thank you Netgalley and Dutton for the advanced copy.

Riley Sager’s With a Vengeance delivers his signature blend of suspense and twists, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his best work. The premise is gripping, and the tension builds well, but some plot points feel predictable, and the pacing drags in places. Still, fans of Sager’s style will likely enjoy the ride, even if it’s not his strongest.

Anna Matheson invites the people responsible for the destruction of her family onto a fateful train ride. This train will deliver them right to waiting authorities in Chicago. However, murder ensues! This was a phenomenal book full of twists and turns that gave me whiplash. On the flip side, this was also an emotional read about grief. With a Vengeance is unlike any other Riley Sager book, yet it was still written with his signature style. I will absolutely purchase this for my library, and I know my patrons will love it!

I love Riley Sager's books, all of his books, except this one. I didn't love it. I liked it, it was good but it wasn't great. The twists were twisty and the suspense was suspenseful but it just wasn't plausible twists, for me at least. I think I need to reread it again and try to put myself in the era where this might be more believable.

A group of individuals receives invitations and tickets to board a train from Philadelphia to Chicago. Each invitation has a mysterious handwritten message on the back. One-by-one they board the train and that's when the fun begins. They've all been gathered to face past actions they never wanted to have to face. And one woman is determined to make sure they finally pay the price for their actions. If you've seen the movie Clue, you've read this book. The twists and turns were fun and kept the pages turning, but there were no real surprises.

I absolutely love Riley Sager and I was excited to receive his new novel, "With a Vengeance". I thought the timeline would throw me off but I loved it.

Anything that Riley Sager publishes is gold. I loved the vibes of this one! I'm a bit younger than his target audience (Early 20s), but this was still fantastic.

I really thought i was getting into a slightly updated Murder On the Orient Express, an idea I was pleased with, so imagine my surprise when it quickly moved into an And Then There Were None, then to something...well, I don't know really, something entirely delightful, if occasionally gooey.

I've heard my whole life that revenge is best served cold, but in this case it is best served on a train. Get ready for the ride of your life as you board a train with very few select passengers. The mastermind behind this? None other than Anna Matheson, whose family is very famous in the train world. Not necessarily good nor bad reasons, but I digress. Anna tragically lost her brother due to a malfunction on the train and has invited the people directly and indirectly responsible for it. She plans on bringing them all to justice at the one and only stop this train offers, but a killer is on the loose and does the job for her. How many passengers will survive this deadly train ride? Claim your ticket and find out for yourself.

This was a great locked room mystery. It definitely reminded me of murder on the orient express. I liked that there was constantly something happening to propel the story forward. There were some twists I thought were surprising and some I figured out. I think this was a very easy read. But nothing truly remarkable. There wasn’t anything that really stood out and it takes place decades ago but other than saying so, didn’t really have anything that tied to the time. I just wish it was a bit more unique and memorable.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

It was not my favorite of Sager's books, but it wasn't bad. It's a good train mystery.

Riley Sager’s With a Vengeance takes readers on a high-stakes train journey in 1954, where Anna Matheson gathers six people from her past for what she hopes will be a calculated act of justice. But when one of them turns up dead, Anna realizes she’s not the only one on board with a score to settle.

While the premise is intriguing, the execution left a lot to be desired. The book leans into the locked-room mystery trend—feeling very Agatha Christie / Clue / Knives Out / etc—but without the sharpness or cohesion needed to pull it off. There are too many characters with backstories and motivations that never quite land, and the plot holes pile up fast. By the final act, the story becomes so convoluted that it’s hard to care at all.

That said, Sager’s writing is as engaging as ever, and it's easy to read this in one or two sittings. It just doesn’t feel as well-constructed as some of his other work.

Thanks NetGalley and Dutton for this eARC.

I love a good train mystery, but this one left me wanting more!

Our main character Anna, invites all the people involved in destroying her life and family onto a train for revenge, and then things go horribly wrong. Taking place within a number of hours on a train with zero stops, the action is fast-paced and engaging. The highlights for me were the twists, which Sager always does well. Some aspects did veer closer to wacky though. I found Anna flat as well as the rest of the cast, so for me this one was fun but didn’t have the emotional bang that would’ve made justice sweeter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for the ARC!

This was a fun read! Definitely gave me some Agatha Christie vibes with the train setting. I didn’t expect the twists but they were also logical. A few parts of this were just absurd but that’s kind of what I signed up for going into this lol. Overall I enjoyed this!