Cover Image: Death on the Trans-Siberian Express

Death on the Trans-Siberian Express

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Member Reviews

3.5 stars

Olga Pushkin is a railway worker, living in a small Siberian village of Roslazny. She lives with her ungrateful and alcoholic father, Mikhail, who hasn’t worked for a number of years and whose main idea of fun is to moan about his daughter.

Olga has a bigger dream: to become a published writer. In her spare time at work, in between the trains, she is busy crafting her magnum opus.

One day, a body of a young man (a foreigner, Olga reckons because of his good set of teeth) is thrown out of the moving Trans-Siberian Express.

Vassily Marushkin is a police officer recently transferred to Roslazny to help dealing with the crime in the area: three couples have gone missing in the past year, then six different bodies were found, still unidentified. There are also rumours circulating about a female serial killer in the area.

Olga begins to assist Vassily to help him find who was responsible for pushing the young man to his death.

However, the duo will soon uncover that conspiracy and corruption run deep in Roslazny…

This was a very unusual story with a different writing style. Olga is a typical woman who is trying to please everyone else first before looking after herself. She undergoes a transformation in the book: from the meek and self-conscious to a more self-assured woman standing her own ground.

However, at times, I felt that some of the descriptions were a bit long winded and could have been condensed a little bit.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group and Constable for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this story.

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Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of C J Farrington's Death on the Trans-Siberian Express.

When I first saw the title, I thought "Is this going to be similiar to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express". It It wasn't. The title would lead you to believe that the story will take place on the train, but it takes place in Roslazny in Siberia, Russia. We are introduced to Olga who, although working for the state railway, dreams of being a published author, and is saving up to study literature. Olga soon enough lands on a murder, or should I say a murder lands on her. The body of an American student is thrown from the train and falls on Olga.

Sergeant Vassily Marushkin has been trying to solve his own personal mystery, when he is stationed in Roslazny and finds himself imprisoned too. Olga and Vassily team up and solve the murder and the mystery of Vassily's family.

The book did have a lot going for it, but seemed to lost momentum and fallen flat. I would have been happy to read a longer book with more detail than what felt like a rushed ending.

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This was a cosy mystery but I felt that it was quiet a slow burn in some parts and I wasn’t as engaged with this as I would be with a thriller with more drama, it was an enjoyable read but didn’t keep me massively interested.

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Firstly, I haven’t read any cosy mysteries before so don’t have anything to compare this against. I really like the cover of the book and this combined with Trans Siberian Express sounded interesting but sadly I found this book a real slog. It was rambling and confusing at times, whilst I enjoyed the characters and particularly liked the addition of the ferret and the hedgehog, it just really fell flat. I did think the cover was very attractive.

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Quite fun to have a cosy mystery rather than a spy thriller set in Russia for a change, although it does feel set in the 1970s rather than the present day. Olga is delightful and look forward to reading more of her adventures.

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Any man or woman who works for the Trans-Siberian Express and also lives in the home Farrington allots them must be an exceptionally tough person. Add to this Olga Pushkin’s becoming unavoidably entwined in a complicated web of deceit and murder from both within and without the political and policing world, and you have a mystery well worth reading.
Farrington’s introduction to the main character by description of setting, characteristics and events has the reader feeling they know her pretty well after only a few pages.
Even if you feel you may have the culprit worked out this is never entirely predictable, so this is a book that can be enjoyed by a wide audience who want a less usual setting for a politically driven murder.
Thank you to Constable (Little Brown Books) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

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From unpromising although authentic beginning (and well developed characters) it took a while for me to engage properly .. I kept waiting for story I was promised! (I guess title lead me to think Agatha Christie but that's wrong steer, really) .. but when it did start, it all took off! So give the novel a break .. loved Olga although I had difficulty understanding her position ..

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I'm afraid i really couldn't get into this book and gave up after a couple of chapters. I found it depressing and i have far too many books to read to continue with it. I'm sure there will be people who will love it but not for me .

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C J Farrington tries hard to offer the reader a chatty, idiosyncratic mystery novel set in a remote Russian village. This chatty plot device, as if thoughts tumble unbidden out onto the page, can be effective - although this reader was left somewhat unconvinced. Although it is not a particularly long book, the requirement to pick through the generous amount of extraneous detail made it seem longer. Despite these reservations there is an acceptable story tucked in the novel.

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Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a well-written cosy mystery. Worth a read. Recommended

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Death on the Trans-Siberian Express by C J Farrington

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Welcome to Roslazny - a sleepy Russian town where intrigue and murder combine to disturb the icy silence...

Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer (Third Class) and would-be bestselling author, spends her days in a little rail-side hut with only Dmitri the hedgehog for company. While tourists and travellers clatter by on the Trans-Siberian Express, Olga dreams of studying literature at Tomsk State University - the Oxford of West Siberia - and escaping the sleepy, snow-clad village of Roslazny.

I read over 80% of this in one sitting, it was a relatively quick and easy book to finish. A lovely setting with great details about life in Siberia. A slow moving plot but overall an interesting read.

Rating 4/5

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I started out enjoying this and was looking forward to seeing where it went but ended up getting a bit bored, the storyline dragged on a bit and I felt that I was just plodding on to finish it rather than actually caring about the outcome of the storyline.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book.

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When a body falls out of a the Trans Siberian train and lands on top of Olga Pushkin, a railway engineer, her quiet life understandably changes. It is by far the most exciting thing that has happened in the remote village of Roslazny, albeit there have been a lot of unsolved murders in the surrounding region. Olga gets involved in investigating this mysterious death when a new police sergeant, who attended the same school as her, is assigned to Roslazny to lead the search to clear up the case.
Olga whose life, up till this point, has centred round two things - her pet hedgehog and writing - turns out to be surprisingly helpful in solving the murder. Along the way she discovers a new confidence which leads her to gain the courage to radically change her life.
Charmingly told, this story really succeeds in conveying the generosity and human warmth Olga has unfailingly shown to this isolated and frozen community. Her innocence and unconventional approach to solving problems is guaranteed to endear her to the reader and as a result Farrington's novel is thoroughly to be recommended.

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I wasnt too keen on this one. I felt like it wasnt what I was expecting and it really didnt deliver. Not one that I would recommend sorry.

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Books set in Russia always seem to be so long. This was worth getting into however. Our heroine dreams of a bigger life than an engineer working for the railway company, the other characters helped or hindered - mostly hindered, as the book progressed.

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Death on the Trans-Siberian Express by C J Farrington is set in Russia, with Olga Pushkn, Railway Engineer (Third Class), who wants more, in this case, to study literature at Tomsk State University, and become a best selling author.  But life is a little more boring than that, in a snow, boring village in Russia.

It becomes more exciting when Olga gets knocked over by an American tourist being pushed off a train, and so she becomes involved in the investigation, with the usual problems that a civilian helping the police has.

I enjoyed the story being set somewhere new, with a disappointed heroine trying to make her way in the world.  This felt quite like a cosy crime, and as this is labelled as book 1 in places, there are obviously plans for more in the series.

Death on the Trans-Siberian Express was published on 25th November 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow C J Farrington on Twitter and his website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Little, Brown Book.

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A murder mystery set in deepest, snowiest Russia? The Trans-Siberian Express? A tough female protagonist?

This was a typical, slow to start book but one to stick with - a dead body is a part worth sticking for! The story is dramatic, a touch of a thriller but also contains humour and character development that makes you fall in love with the protagonist.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

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Thankyou for giving me the chance to read in advance. A bit slow for me but a good murder mystery. If that’s your style then this is for you

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Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer (Third Class) and would-be bestselling author, spends her days in a little rail-side hut with only Dmitri the hedgehog for company. While tourists and travellers clatter by on the Trans-Siberian Express, Olga dreams of studying literature at Tomsk State University - the Oxford of West Siberia - and escaping the sleepy, snow-clad village of Roslazny. The characters in the book bring the story alive and leaves you wanting to hear more about them.

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An intriguing and quirky murder mystery, set in the small Russian town of Roslazny. Where the extremely likeable, but put-upon protagonist Olga Pushkin leads an uneventful life as a railway engineer with dreams of becoming an author and student of the Tomsk State University. Until the day she is knocked unconscious at work by a man falling from the Trans-Siberian, after which her life changes forever. She puts on her detective hat and slowly discovers an underworld of activity.

The characters are weird and wacky, and combined with plot revelations they do start to feel slightly stereotyped. However, the environment is evoked beautifully and didn't disappoint (the setting was the main reason for requesting this title). The conclusion of the murder is a bit rushed but I didn't mind as the going-ons of the small town were fascinating. It reminded me of the 90s TV series Northern Exposure and I would definitely read more in the series.

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