With A Vengeance by Riley Sagar
I give this book 4 stars.

One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson's family. Twelve years later,under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. But Anna's plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. With time running out Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most.

I firstly want to say I’m a huge fan of Riley Sager.
A locked room thriller is something a bit different from this author and while it didn’t hit the mark for me personally, I’m sure most will love it. It definitely gives an Agatha Christie crossed with Clue (film) vibe.

There’s a great revenge and justice theme running through this storyline and a train full of unlikeable (for me) characters. There are lots of twists and turns throughout the journey (maybe a few too many) and in some parts I had to suspend disbelief at what was happening. I did however really enjoy discovering each passengers personal motive for the betrayal they caused Anna’s family and the intense time running out build up towards the ending.
Looking forward to what the author writes next!
With thanks to Netgalley,Riley Sager and Hodder and Stoughton for my chance to read and review this book.

I just finished With a Vengeance and I have thoughts. First of all, major Murder on the Orient Express vibes — the whole “murder on a train” setup was classic and atmospheric. I’m a sucker for that kind of setting because there’s just something about being trapped in a confined space with a killer that cranks the tension way up. You feel the anxiety creeping in with every turn of the page.

Now, I’ll be honest: the first part of the book is kinda slow. I was actually worried I wouldn’t get into it, which was disappointing because I usually find Riley Sager’s stuff super gripping from the start. His last few books had more of that slow-burn intensity, building suspense in a way that really pulls you in — this one didn’t quite hit that same mark at the beginning.

But it definitely picks up around the halfway point. There are some solid twists that start rolling in, and the final twist I didn't see coming at all. Totally made the second half worth it. It ended up being such a fast-paced read that I flew through it in one sitting.

Overall, it was enjoyable — not mind-blowing, not Sager’s best, but still a fun ride. If you're into train-set mysteries and need a quick thriller fix, it’s worth the ticket.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

*2.5 stars*

Having read and really enjoyed a few of Sager's other works I was really excited to give this a read. However this is very different to his previous books and I'm not quite sure it worked for me.

This felt like a more traditional thriller along the lines of Agatha Christie and for me it lacked some punch. There were far too many twists that became repetitive and felt boring.

I did like the character development and the main character really blossomed the more the book went on.

I also enjoyed the concept of the location purely just being the train as it really added to the locked room element.

I do enjoy Sager's writing style so did find myself wanting to finish this but overall it just felt a bit basic and lacked his usual flair.

Riley Sager has a nice easy style of writing. This novel is set on a Philadelphia express train at the time when rail travel was about to be overtaken by other modes of transport. Someone is killed on board and Mr Sager leads you through the suspects from the handful of passengers. There are twists aplenty and it all adds up to a decent whodunit.

Anna, the protagonist of our story, lures together a key group of people from whom she is determined to get answers, since they were instrumental in destroying her family. Set on a luxury train nearly a century ago, the action in this story takes place in a locked room scenario, offering echoes of golden age mysteries.

Anna's plans are unexpectedly derailed (pun intended) by a murder that takes place, indicating that somebody else has plans for the passengers of this particular trip.

While we get a nuanced and interesting portrayal of Anna from Sager, not all the characters are as sharply drawn, and the narrative has some issues in terms of facing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story, recommend it, and give it 3.5 stars.

I'm a huge Riley Sager fan so I was incredibly happy to be given an ARC for his latest book. However, this one was not for me. I usually enjoy a locked door mystery but this one was a bit of a let down.

It was an exciting storyline that I couldn't wait to get in to, with many twists and turns along the way, but it was a little anticlimactic. I found a few parts predictable and a little underwhelming.

This will not put me off reaching for more of Riley Sager's books in future, I look forward to reading what he writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Riley Sager’s With a Vengeance hurls readers into a tense revenge thriller set almost entirely on a lavish overnight train. The protagonist, Anna Matheson, arranges a ride with the powerful figures who destroyed her family, aiming for confessions and eventual justice.

Anna Matheson is at the story’s core. She is strikingly human, determined, conflicted, and unpredictable in moments of crisis. Her mission of revenge is complicated by the sudden outbreak of violence: after a murder derails her original plan, Anna is forced to protect the very people she once saw as targets. This inversion, where the avenger must shield her would-be enemies, underscores the novel’s interest in moral ambiguity. Anna’s capacity for both grudge and compassion is handled with nuance, holding attention as stakes, ethical and physical, rise.

The supporting cast, assembled from Anna’s past, brings color but is at times less sharply drawn. Some characters blur together, reflecting the transience and anonymity of travel itself. What stands out is not individual characterization but the shifting trust and suspicion across the group. Their shared predicament, trapped with an unknown murderer in claustrophobic luxury, amplifies tension and forces uneasy alliances. The closed setting not only strengthens the mystery but also serves as a metaphor for psychological confinement, echoing how old grievances and unresolved trauma can lock people in cycles of suspicion and regret.

Sager’s style borrows from classic whodunits, reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, but filters this lineage through a contemporary, noir-influenced sensibility. The prose is sleek, atmospheric, and occasionally chilly. The use of shifting timelines keeps the reader off-balance, inviting a constant re-evaluation of motives and facts. The novel’s brisk pace allows little respite, and while some plot elements recall other thrillers, the emotional layers and relentless tension hold the narrative together.

The central themes, justice, revenge, and the limits of closure, resonate both in the novel and in current research on human responses to stress and wrongs endured. Anna’s journey mirrors these tensions, questioning whether acts of retribution heal or deepen wounds. Confinement, vulnerability, and disrupted plans are also key in psychological research on stress and coping, especially when individuals are isolated or forced to navigate fraught social dynamics.

With a Vengeance stands as a memorable modern thriller that honors classic mystery frameworks while pushing its protagonist into sharper, darker territory. Anna’s evolution, the train’s inescapable setting, and the constant churn of suspicion and uneasy loyalty combine to produce a work that is both satisfying and unsettling.

Having read all of his books, I wasn’t extremely crazy about this one. This is a slow burn mystery set on a train across states. Anna gathers these particular passengers to avenge her family. Along the way one of the passengers is dead. Thank you to the publisher for a copy.

A cleverly crafted tale of seeking justice and battling with inner demons.

A murder mystery plot with twists and turns. Some you may see coming and some you most likely won’t.

It’s a book which you whizz through, because you need to know what happens next.

Yet it doesn’t feel urgent, or too much dramatic action. It’s a nice pace so you can take in the twists and turns whilst still finding out new aspects to the back story and the one unfolding in the present.

Overall a great book to read and one I would recommend to everyone who loves a good murder mystery.

I was ready to be decently entertained or immensely disappointed because you never know with Riley Sager, and well ... this turned out to be another disappointment. Didn't he say he wanted to take a break from writing? That was like 2 years and 2 mediocre books ago, so maybe he really should have done so. At least this book had a good premise: Anna Matheson gathers six people on a train to take revenge after they wronged her family in the past. She wants them to suffer for the rest of their lives and plans to put them in jail, but someone starts murdering them on the nonstop 13-hour train ride. But what sounds like a fast-paced, thrilling story turned out to be a dragging mess full of uninteresting characters, nonsensical plot twists and misleading cliffhangers at the end of almost every chapter. It's hardly an uneventful book, but nothing caught my attention. The way all the characters were introduced at the beginning, one chapter after another, almost put me to sleep. Character work is not a strength of Riley Sager, so a multiple POV book is a weird choice for him in my opinion. Everyone played a role in a train accident and in the death of Anna's family, and all of that is revealed fairly early on. A big part of the book then is about revealing the reasons for the characters' former actions, and I don't know, but can we not focus on the literal murders that are occurring present day? But no one here tried to find the murderer. A death would occur, the other characters would find the body and the murder weapon, then discuss the method of murder and then throw around wild accusations. And repeat. There were no clever hints to the murderer, because everyone was accused by everyone at some point. Honestly, I didn't even care anymore when the truth was revealed eventually. All in all, a repetitive and unthrilling thriller that makes nothing of its cool premise.

One last thing that I don't want to leave unmentioned: one of the invited characters is Edith Gerhardt. Her whole personality is about her being an old German lady. But that apparently doesn't mean that she can actually speak German. Like, "der Spinne" (the spider)? Come on! If you look up the German translation for a word anyway why wouldn't you look up the correct article for said word? And don't get me started on the way Edith called Anna "Schatzi". I don't know anyone who would use this term in a serious way, let alone when referring to a child outside of one's family. Why isn't stuff like this checked in the publishing process? A native speaker would catch such mistakes immediately. I will never understand. I got an arc, so this might actually be corrected in the finished version of the book, but I honestly doubt it. I know that an English speaker wouldn't notice, but it always bugs me when this occurs in books.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book only knowing the title and the authors name and that’s all I needed to know it would be a good book. I wasn’t disappointed.

The book gave Agatha Christie vibes and it was refreshing to read a story set during a simpler time without all the latest technology leaving the characters without a single phone on board that train.

It begins with introducing the characters one by one. I was worried it would become too confusing trying to remember who is who but the author did an amazing job with the character development that I found it easy to follow each characters story, past and present.

It doesn’t take long for the story to start pick up and the twists and secrets keep coming non-stop until the very end. I enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more by this amazing author.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Really enjoyed !! Typical Riley sager love his writing style keeps you guessing the whole way through

The synopsis of this had me thinking this would be high intensity. However I felt it lacked it a little.
While I love isolated settings. This just missed the mark a little bit for me.

I found it hard to care about why she was so mad. Mad enough to go to these lengths.
The ending also just felt flat for me.

I love Riley Sager, so missing this book was never an option.

Do I like historical fiction? Absolutely not. But this is Riley Sager we're talking about, so I shoved my skepticism aside and dove in headfirst.

Unfortunately, the formatting is a war crime. Not Riley's fault, of course, but my eyeballs filed a formal complaint before I even reached page three. Still, it's Riley Sager, so I braced myself, adjusted my expectations, and valiantly scrolled through the typographical battlefield.

I made it to 28% before frustration mounted a full-scale rebellion, and I was forced to concede defeat. And yet—despite the chaos, despite the suffering—I refused to give it one star. Why? Because loyalty sometimes means enduring a truly tragic reading experience in silence.

For Riley Sager, I suffer

Riley Sagers ‘With a Vengeance’ is a twist on the classic ‘killings on a train’ theme. It was a great idea and kept me guessing until the end.
I have read all of Riley Sagers books, and although I cannot honestly say this was my favourite of them all, it is certainly not to be missed.
Easy to read, the plot moved along swiftly and pulled you in.
I am now eagerly awaiting Riley’s next novel!

WITH A VENGEANCE, in theory, is not a typical Riley Sager novel. This is much more of a historical mystery in the veins of Agatha Christie's The Murder on the Orient Express.
We follow a not so big cast of characters inside a train journey while some of them are picked off one by one. This is a story about revenge and trying to set things right.
Riley Sager makes sure to spend a lot of time trying to develop these characters and making us, the readers, intrigued and confused about who the killer is and how they're doing it. We are led to believe there might be multiple culprits and fingers are pointed constantly.

I personally really liked this book. I enjoyed all the characters, mostly the protagonist, Anna, and I had a blast doubting the characters over and over again. This book doesn't read like a RS novel, in general, up until the last 10%, when the typical ludicrous (in the good way, in my opinion) plot twists are presented one right after the other.
I'm glad RS wrote a book just like this. It's refreshing to see an established author trying to deliver something different from what they are used to do.
However, I'm pretty sure many RS fans will not be as receptive as I was.
Some will complain about its pacing; others will complain saying how repetitive some of the chapters are; others will simply not buy the idea of a group of people being stranded inside a moving train for 13 whole hours under the threat of going to jail when the train stops at its destination; and so on.
I have a strong feeling that this book will be the new 'Survive the Night': many readers (fans or not of the author) will not be pleased by this new book. LOL

I'd still recommend it to RS readers and especially to readers who are into historical mysteries. Just go into this book knowing this is NOT a typical Riley Sager thriller. Honestly, I don't consider this book a thriller at all. Be aware of that to avoid further disappointments.

Thank you, NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO GOOD!
Think Agatha Christie meets Fredia McFadden add a sprinkle of twists and a dash of gasps and Riley Sager has done it again!
I’ve loved every single Riley Sager book I’ve read and this one does no disappoint.
It’s fast paced and the twists makes you non stop turning the page for me ITS JUST SO GOOD!
Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read it

Revenge is fleeting. Vengeance lasts a lifetime.

Locked door thrillers are some of my favourite reads. I often enjoy them, and find myself flying through them whenever I pick one up. Though I did fly through this one, I definitely did not enjoy it as much. The book was a little slow to start with the introduction of characters. However, I didn't mind that too much as it helps set the tone.

When things got going though, it was non-stop action, suspense and thrill. There were times when I was immersed in this book, and other times I found myself rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. For the life of me, I couldn't get behind Annie or see the logic in her plan. Her character was very conflicting at times and I couldn't connect or sympathize with her. At times, I also forgot that this was set in the 50s. I think that has a lot to do with the dialogue though.

Around that 50% mark I was no longer invested and had at least one of the twists figured out. The ending was a series of revelation after revelation that just felt way too overwhelming for me. There was way too much happening that didn't need to be. I feel like there was definitely some Agatha Christie inspiration here but it just didn't work as well for me. I'll still continue to read Sager's work. Though I may not always love it, you can't make me hate him.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodderbooks, and Riley Sager, for my eARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Pub date: June 12th, 2025.

I didn't like this a lot, unfortunately. I love a good locked-room mystery, but this train setting felt very familiar and not very original and I wasn't sold on the idea from the start. It was also incredibly slow, which isn't usually a problem I have with Sager's books, but it just took ages to get going. The writing style was also quite different from his usual style and I found it a little harder to read. This just felt more like a slow mystery rather than a thriller, which wasn't what I expected knowing his previous books.

I also don't think we needed that many POVs, it got so confusing sometimes, and I couldn't remember which character I was reading about. The story was also just honestly really boring, the twists were predictable and by the end I was just glad it was over. He tried to make you care a lot about these people but there was so much info dumping in their backstory and we just didn't need to know all that.

All in all, this was probably my second to least favourite book from Riley Sager, and honestly maybe finally my last.

I love Riley sager books, each one has twists like no other and usually another aspect. This is a very murder on the orient express type whodunit which was good but I feel I expected a little more?