There was quite a lot to like in this book - I thought the author did a good job of creating a North East in the 1970s setting with all that implies around almost casually accepted sexism and class difference.
The premise - four strangers on a train get to talking about their professions, with one revealing he's an assassin for hire, and how that affects all their futures in the short and long term.
The central conceit is a vital one for the story but some readers may find it a big step in believability to start the novel with. A (self professed) meticulously careful killer who will dispatch anyone he considers might even have paid too much attention to him blurting out so readily what he does because of over medication? If you can accept that then you'll get caught up in the network of coincidences and criss crossing of paths which add an almost farcical feel to the book (the fact one of the main characters is an actor who references farce productions several times is clearly no accident by the author).
While the novel has a dual timeline, it's really only in the bookends that the more modern aspect come into play - mostly this is a short time period story where a lot happens over a couple of days.
The pre-blurb said it was ideal for fans of Anthony Horowitz which I can see slightly, but perhaps because it's a debut novel, it didn't quite have the confident footing of that author in its' use of humour for me, but I read it in a couple of sittings - it's an easy, fast going story and while none of the characters particularly 'appealed', the sense of period and location worked well.

Unfortunately, this just felt like a bad pastiche. Could be an interesting concept with the right writer, but DNF

Quite honestly, one of the most surprising books I’ve read for 2025. Coming from the author of Horrible Histories, you’d expect something unique and this is it. Four strangers meet on a train in the 1970s – and each share their profession. Someone is perhaps too vocal in what they undertake, for a fee, of course… Here begins a journey where they are thrown together: one turns blackmailer, one forced to commit a crime. A cast of eccentric characters are woven in for what is a punchy, perfectly pitched story that borders – at times – on the ridiculous, but you want to keep reading nonetheless. In fact, it’s because it’s so clever and fantastical in part that you’re keen to learn how it ends (which is also excellent).