Please note that I read this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
“6:40 to Montreal” follows Agatha who had a run-away best-selling thriller (sometime in the past) but has been unable to write another hit. She’s dealing with a huge case of writer’s block and general apathy about her husband, son, and marriage. We don’t know why (it takes a while to get there) but Agatha is desperate to get away from her husband and leave for the 6:40 to Montreal. Her husband bought it for her as a gift so that she could have a day of uninterrupted writing. Why someone would do this for someone with writer’s block is another question I have, but whatever. the train breaks down though pushing Agatha’s plans to meet her friend in Montreal into question. And when a passenger is found dead, it quickly becomes a question of who could have killed him and why.
If it wasn’t for the ending I would have given this 5 stars. I think that Jurczyk wrote themselves into a corner and then the most outlandish (and ridiculous) why behind the main murder and what the person was trying to do was insane. I just did not buy it, it also didn’t make a lick of sense because there were too many things that would have had to happen to make things line up.
Also, Agatha takes a while to warm up to, but when you do, you feel for her, and then you don’t again, and then you get the messed up ending and I was just over it.
The other characters we meet on the train are very developed, you get the train crew of Dorcas. Agatha’s seat meet named Finch. An older and very tall man named Jeff. A mother and son. And of course, a woman who has an axe to grind against Agatha and her first book.
I thought the flow of the book was working and the plot was interesting. I was wondering if the death we get was an actual murder or not. But then the book started to get more and more outlandish at about the 60 percent mark. And then the brakes were firmly off and I don’t even want to tell you what happens to who or why. It just doesn’t make any sense especially after we know the things we do about the characters at that point. I just felt so confused at a certain point and had to go back and re-read a few times and it did not help.
The setting of the murder happening on a train made me happy. It takes place during the day before New Year’s Day in Canada and a winter storm is moving in. I loved the idea behind this book so much and then the execution just fell flat.
I already talked about the unrealistic and just terrible ending.
I read this for CBR17bingo, “White”. The cover has a lot of white in this since it takes place in January in Canada.