I enjoyed the psychological perspective of this Simenon. We're happily inside the mind of our main character for most of the story, and I would have preferred not to have read it's actual ending. Nevertheless, it's a short and page-turning story, as we have an intriguing scenario. It served well as an introduction to Simenon's writing.

During a chance meeting on the Venice to Paris train a stranger asks Justin Calmer to deliver a briefcase to Switzerland for him. Dragging him into a world of guilt, lies and paranoia.

This is the first book I have read by Simenon. It's so well-written and readable. It's quite a pleasure to read. A classic tale of a person being thrust into a situation he didn't want to be in and the decisions he is forced to make. I will look out for more from this author.

My thanks to #NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Georges Simenon books are always a fun little adventure! Short and sharp, I always enjoy unraveling Simenon's mysteries and the scenery in this one just adds to the wonderful European feel.

Whilst travelling home from Venice to Paris without his family a stranger asks Justin Calmar to deliver a suitcase; however, when Justin arrives a woman is dead so he flees taking the suitcase with him. Once at home he opens the suitcase and discovers a large amount of cash; what has be become embroiled in and can he escape?

This novel was perfect as to an average family man with no criminal past being pulled into a situation quite by chance. I loved the atmosphere and the pressure that Justin found himself in and the dilemma of whether or not to spend the money. The claustrophobic atmosphere and the tension built and I was gripped; a 5 star read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

A short, easy to read novella encapsulating period in the life of a sad gentleman who lacks confidence. The mystery starts almost immediately and the suspense is carried on throughout, as we follow the main character’s battle with honesty.

I love Simenon’s writing and this is no exception although I had to read the end a couple of times to realise what happened.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Illicit secrets

A staid family man takes the train home to Paris early from holiday in Venice, leaving his family to complete the stay. On the train a sinister stranger questions him and then asks him for a favour: at Lausanne he should remove a brief case from a safe deposit box and deliver it to a specified address. Our hero agrees. In a tunnel between Italy and Switzerland the stranger disappears from the train. Still, a promise is a promise; the brief case is recovered, taken to the address, but the only person there is dead! She has been strangled! The brief case is full of cash! What is our hero to do?

As much a psychological quandary as a criminal mystery, the second half of the novel explores how Justin, the central character, reacts to his situation. He has unlimited money, but can he spend it? Is the money being sought by others? Will the police blame him if he tries to explain how he came by it. How might he cover up this unearned wealth from his honest and intelligent wife? His growing paranoia and his increasing desire to consider the money legitimately his own ensnare both Justin, his family and the reader too - a very ordinary man confronting an extraordinary situation, not to say temptation. As usual, very well done.

Due to work commitments, Justin Calmar leaves his family's holiday in Vence to return to Paris. On the train journey, a stranger asks a favour of him, to deliver a briefcase during his layover in Lausanne. From this point, his life turns into a series of lies, deceit and guilt, each creating further pressure in his life.

This was an amazing psychological thriller that centred upon the mind of our protagonist. It starts with some uncomfortable observations about his daughter growing into a woman while waiting to depart from Venice. Then there are his observations about this stranger who is the sole companion in the train car. Once he agrees to the task, we are privy to all his thoughts about this secretive task, all his imaginings as to what it's really about. For the duration, Justin feels he is holding his cover quite well, but it seems almost everyone has noticed changes in him and eventually various ideas emerge as to why he has changed. There's a tension throughout the novella that keeps the reader on the edge of the seat, wondering what is going to happen and how things will turn out.

This was my first book by Simenon and it's a brilliant introduction that surely will have me exploring more of his work. I give this 4.5 stars overall. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Classic for the advanced reader copy. I have provided this review voluntarily.

Is this a gift or a burden?

It was only when I came to Goodreads to mark this as read that I realised that I had heard this back in 2016. A fact which I seem to have completely forgotten as no hint of having heard this story before came into my mind whilst I was reading it. It might be because my hearing and my reading store things separately amongst my grey matter.

I enjoyed this psychological examination of how Justin Calmar got turned from an open book into a closed book with the resultant malaise that effected his mind and his body.

Yes murder was committed and probably theft as well but not by Calmar. It is rather unclear what crime if any he committed. Still he was riddled by guilt and could not think clearly, nor enjoy the unexpected 'gift' which ended up being a curse instead.

An ARC of this new edition gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley

Originally published in 1965 this is an example of his writing away from the Maigret novels. This book is one of his many psychological thrillers, which he termed ‘romans durs' roughly translated as his ‘hard novels’.

They are different in many ways to his detective series all of which I’ve read in order thanks to the modern translations Penguin Classics have commissioned.

Happily this treatment has been given to these darker thrillers and The Venice Train has been reissued in a new English translation by Ros Schwartz.

The story centres on a middle class man who has over thought his way through life. Brighter than his achievements and successes he has a routine “sales” position in a plastic company he is ill-suited for, but for his command of languages. He is married with two children but he allows circumstances dictate his life rather than owning his own place in family, firm or wider social settings.

All this changes when he meets a stranger on a train. Returning early to Paris leaving his wife, daughter and son to continue their holiday in Venice. He falls into conversation with a man who discerns he is a ‘man of integrity’ yet Justin reflects afterwards he asked and learned nothing about this man in return.

For some reason the man entrusts him with an errand which is the potential doorway into a life of high adventure and international mystery.

Whatever, upon his return home he is a changed man. His personality unravels into a more secretive lifestyle. His one friend thinks he must be having an affair. His wife thinks he is keeping some serious medical diagnosis from her.

Meanwhile he becomes trapped within the fantasy of the chance meeting with this man on the train; the exposure to danger for him in performing the simple favour during a change of trains in Switzerland and the burden of knowledge other people may have been killed for their own involvement along the way.

Simenon basically unpacks the psyche of this man who was short of ambition, happy within his routine but now questioning the deeper purpose of life and fulfilment.

Unable to change or take control, it is the actions of others that stifle his ability to manage or profit from the events following his strange encounter on the train.

A complex thriller where an underdog has more than a walk on part when he stumbles into a high stakes conspiracy. The author doesn’t have a Maigret to prise apart the basic humanity that led to a calamitous turn of events. Here we have the own ramblings of a troubled soul slowly diminishing before our eyes.

A terrific read that shows the range and depth of writing by this much loved author. Georges Simenon

Two of the great mystery writers of the twentieth century - Georges Simenon and Patricia Highsmith - both wrote of strangers on a train. Years later both authors died in Switzerland, but there the similarities end. Highsmith's novel launched her literary career. For Simenon his novel was a welcome relief from yet more Maigret novels, of which he had already written over sixty.
Justin Calmar faces a dilemma: should he accept becoming a rich man, with all the guilt attached, or remain relatively poor? Simenon brilliantly explores the psyche of a man of integrity who suddenly finds himself in uncharted waters. The plot is all the more chilling because of its deceptive simplicity.

<b> <I> The Venice Train</I> by Georges Simenon review – Trains-lated Masterpiece? </b>

A normal family man rides home alone after a holiday and becomes the centre of a mystery – Where did the man go? – and where did this money originate?

While this novel is not exactly new, this e-book edition of the 20th Century novel will have anyone who hasn’t read the French original want even more of Simenon’s work published. Almost half a century after its original publication, the timeless prose will have you engrossed and on the edge of your armchair, asking yourself, “What’s next for Justin Calmar?” The protagonist comes back from his family holiday earlier than his wife and children. It is only a matter of minutes after boarding when a strange old man asks him peculiar questions about his family and the nature of Calmar’s character. The man vanishes from the train; however, he asks Justin to uphold a promise – to deliver a briefcase to a woman in Lausanne and what he finds changes his life forever.
Not only does this novel explore the psychological effects that keeping secrets from your partner has on a person, but also how external pressures and stress can accumulate until breaking point. It alludes to the notion that a person can do crazy things while under the influence of stress. While not explicitly what I would consider a trigger warning, anyone that does not like adult themes such as alcohol abuse may want to steer clear. It is not an overarching theme and not much attention is brought to it, however, the protagonist does have some very troubling habits.
Despite this, the novel is well worth the read and is thoroughly enjoyable from cover to cover. The mysteries of the novel are satisfying, and the novella is filled with exquisite psychological and physiological descriptions. Initially filled with sympathy towards Calmar’s situation, it does not take long for his hard-working charm, and dedicated husband persona to dissolve and all that remains of a man, once so honourable, is a hollow husk of the man he once was. The sympathy felt towards him slowly starts to dissipate as he becomes increasingly entrenched in his own moral ambiguity.
I would like to thank <b>Penguin Classics</b> and <b>Netgalley</b> for the privilege of reading this work as an ARC.

Unimaginable Consequences…
Man meets stranger on The Venice Train. He is, perhaps, a man of much integrity. He is also, perhaps, a man keen to help his fellow man. When a favour is asked of him he will comply leading to catastrophic and unimaginable consequences. A dark, chilling and brooding psychological suspense delving deep into the human condition from a master of his game.

Justin Calmer is travelling home to Paris, ahead of his family, from a holiday in Venice. His train journey is quiet and uneventful until the stranger sitting opposite asks him to collect and deliver a briefcase to an address in Switzerland when he changes trains. It doesn't take long for a man like Calmer to become consumed by guilt, lies and paranoia.

'A man of integrity. An idiot of a man of integrity' 25%

Originally published in 1965, this is a nicely unsettling book exploring a person's mindset. Unlike some of Simenon's novels, this is one that stands up today; the tropes and conventions used haven't been repeated numerous times since then (like his early Maigret stories) so it feels fresh and interesting.

Potentially as a result of the translation process, or simply that it doesn't work in another language, the pacing and narrative are jarring throughout. It isn't always clear who is speaking, the relevance of certain flashbacks or at which point of the timeline an event is happening. There are also some repetitions of phrases, like the same description given to a character previously used two chapters prior.

It isn't a neat crime story- there are limited details given on the events- but a well-done, light psychological thriller.

This is one of Georges Simenon’s many psychological thrillers, which he described as 'romans durs' or ‘hard novels’. I’ve read two of his others – The Man from London and The Strangers in the House – and have enjoyed both, so was looking forward to reading this one. First published in 1965 as Le Train de Venise, it has just been reissued by Penguin Classics in a new English translation by Ros Schwartz.

The novel begins with Justin Calmar boarding a train in Venice to return to his home in Paris after a family holiday. His wife and two young children will follow in a few days’ time. During the journey, another passenger engages Justin in conversation and he finds himself agreeing to deliver a briefcase to an address in Lausanne when the train stops at the station there. However, things don’t go according to plan and Justin ends up returning to Paris with the case still in his possession. Unable to resist the temptation, he breaks the locks and looks inside…and what he finds there will change his life forever.

I won’t say too much more about the plot because I wouldn’t want to spoil the suspense of wondering what is inside the case and what Justin will decide to do with it. This is a very short book (176 pages in the paperback version) and for the first half, the tension builds and builds. It would have made a perfect Alfred Hitchcock film! It’s not a crime novel, however, so don’t go into it expecting one; the mystery is never fully explained or resolved, it ends abruptly and we are left with lots of unanswered questions. The events on the train are simply a starting point for Simenon to explore the psychological effects on Justin Calmar as he battles with nerves, guilt and paranoia, lying to his wife and his friends and finding that each lie leads to another.

The second half of the book isn’t quite as strong as the first and I do wish we’d had answers to at least some of those questions, but this is a fascinating and compelling story – my favourite by Georges Simenon so far.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel, whose main character is presented with an interesting dilemma following a chance encounter on the eponymous locomotive. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, as I feel that going in with as little knowledge as possible is the best way to approach this book, other than to say that if you expecting a similar tale to something like Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” then this is possibly not for you!

Georges Simenon along with Patricia Highsmith reigns supreme over the psychological thriller, they both drill deep into the human psyche, seeing all that is dark and where paranoia and obsession can lead a character. The Venice Train is a standalone examination of a man(Justin Calmar) who boards a train and meets a fellow traveller who is highly inquisitive, the man asks Calmar to do him a favour, which will destroy Calmar's seemingly happy existence. It leads Calmar into paranoia and self destruction with his wife, friends and work colleagues all picking up on the change in Calmar's personality. This is a novel/novella about a man who sees himself as a man of integrity who helps a stranger which will lead to calamitous circumstances.

The Venice Train is a stand-alone novella by award-winning Belgian author, Georges Simenon, first published in 1965. This reissue, with a gorgeous art deco-style cover, is issued by Penguin Press UK some fifty-two years later. It is translated by Ros Schwartz.

When, due to work commitments, Parisian sales manager, Justin Calmer leaves his vacationing family in Venice to travel home, he finds himself sharing his train carriage for the first leg of his journey, as far as Lausanne, with a man he thinks might have come from Yugoslavia.

Normally quite reserved, he’s surprised to be sharing details of his life with this stranger, and agreeing to do the man a favour. Mysteriously, he doesn’t see the man again after the train emerges from the Simplon Tunnel.

With two hours to kill between trains, Justin leaves his luggage, collects a locked attaché case from a pay locker, catches a cab and tries to deliver the briefcase to a certain Arlette Staub in Lausanne. But at Rue du Bugnon, he’s in for a shock: a woman lies, apparently dead, on the floor of the apartment. Calmar backs out, attaché case still in hand.

He doesn’t summon the police, telling himself that what led up to this point is too bizarre to be believed. He heads back to the station where, likely too affected by the trauma of seeing the body, he doesn’t do the obvious thing: put the case back into a locker. Instead, he carries home an attaché case filled with worry and anxiety and, as it later turns out, a lot of cash.

In between furtively and obsessively checking Swiss papers for news of the stranger and the dead woman, that case of cash has him re-evaluating his life so far. Having second-guessed and rationalised about his right to the cash, he ends up in a complicated routine for storing the case and finding creative ways to spend the money without alarming his wife or friends.

He’s a lot less successful at staying under the radar of family, friends and colleagues than he thinks. The secret eating him up from inside, he wonders if he is happy.

Readers expecting a crime novel may be disappointed: the details of the mystery are never revealed, and the abrupt ending, quite fitting with what Simenon intends, may leave some dissatisfied. Simenon uses the encounter on the train, and its aftermath, to explore their psychological effect on his protagonist, who believes himself a man of integrity. A short read that ultimately packs quite a punch.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Penguin Press UK.

This is a suspenseful and gripping novella by Georges Simenon written in 1965 that is less a focus on crime but more a psychological examination of the unravelling of an ordinary man, Justin Calmar, travelling on the Venice train, returning to Paris early. There is an encounter with an unsettling stranger who asks him to deliver a briefcase to a woman's apartment in Lausanne, which he agrees to do, an act that will have profoundly life changing repercussions for him, forcing him to confront the kind of man he is. He gets there and finds a dead woman, leaving with the briefcase that turns out to have rather a lot of money in it, but given who he is and the life he leads, it not easy to spend the money. Calmar is a married family man, under constant observation at home and work, with no privacy whatever, and nowhere he can hide the money.

Guilt, shame and anxiety begin to slowly weigh him down as his changed and deceptive behaviour does not escape notice, all culminating in the disturbing ending. This is a compulsive and classic Simenon read that I recommend to other readers. Many thanks to the publisher.

A Simenon novel rarely lets you down and The Venice Train is as good an example of that as any. The plot is simple. Justin Calmar, a rather ordinary man, leaves his family holiday in Venice a few days early and meets a man on the train back to Paris who asks him to do a favour for him when the train stops in Lausanne. This favour changes his life, which quickly falls apart as lying and guilt eat away at him. Reading like the plot of dozens of films (but having got in early being first published in 1965), Simenon convincingly captures Calmer's growing paranoia and disintegration, leaving much unsaid as a fundamentally decent but weak man tries to live with the consequences of agreeing to help a stranger on train.