Five Found Dead

Agatha Christie wrote her crime novel, Murder on the Orient Express in 1934. The book has become a classic and the story has been made into films and television shows. Many authors have also used ideas from the book as a basis for their work. One recent example is Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Australian author Benjamin Stevenson. Another Australian author, Sulari Gentill has written a new book, Five Found Dead, which involves a journey on the famous train, the Orient Express.

Joe Penvale and his sister, Meredith, board the Orient Express in Paris for a well earned holiday. Joe, an author of crime fiction, also hopes that the trip will provide inspiration for his second novel. Little do they realise the drama about to unfold.

The first evening is spent meeting some of their fellow travellers but next day they discover that the cabin next to their cabin has become a crime scene. Shortly afterwards COVID cases are discovered in one of the carriages and part of the train is in lockdown. The passengers are not allowed to leave the train and there is a killer on board.

Several of the passengers have been involved with law enforcement and the manager of the train calls them together to try and solve who is behind the mounting deaths occurring on the train. But can all of these experts also be trusted? 

Sulari Gentill has written a humorous who-done-it with a large collection of suspects and many people trying to solve the case. Meanwhile Joe accumulates much source material for his next book. Five Found Dead is an entertaining crime fiction book with plenty of puzzles to solve.

The Mystery Writer

The Mystery Writer is another fast paced crime novel with many twists by Sulari Gentill. Theo arrives unexpectedly at the home of her brother, Gus, who had moved to America from Australia many years ago and is now working as a lawyer. Theo also started studying law in Australia but has given it up to become a mystery writer.

During the day, Theo usually writes in a cafe near home where a number of other writers also work. There she meets Dan Murdoch, one of her favourite authors, and they become friends. Theo's life changes when she discovers Dan's body. This begins a series of nightmarish events with subsequent murders and Theo, her brother and a friend being main subjects.

There are many layers adding to the main story in this novel including eccentric families who are preparing for future disaster and the influence of conspiracy theories in creating and altering public opinion to their will. As the suspense grew I was reluctant to put his book down until the last chapter.

Crossing the Lines

Crossing the Lines by Saluri Gentill, published in the USA as After She Wrote Him, is a crime novel with a difference. In 2018 Crossing the Lines won the Ned Kelly Award for crime fiction.

Madeline (Maddie) d'Leon is a writer of crime novels living with her husband, a doctor, in a NSW rural town. Madeline is best known for a series of crime novels featuring a female protagonist but she wants to write a stand-alone crime novel. She wants to write something different. This time, in her new crime novel, her protagonist is a writer of literary fiction, Edward (Ned) McGinnity. Edward McGinnity is also writing a new novel and decides that the protagonist should be named Madeline d'Leon.

As the reader follows the writing of the two books, the plots become to some extent merged as main characters begin to take on a life of their own and intereact with the thoughts and even lives of their authors. The reader is left wondering who is the actual author and who is the protagonist? As she writes this new novel Madeline attempts to include more background and an understanding of her characters as occurs in literary fiction while Ned discovers that as events unfold his literary work is becoming a crime novel. The relationship between Madeline and Edward begins to expand outside the writing of the books.

At one stage (page 31) when Edward is asked about his new story he replies: "It's an explanation of an author's relationship with her protagonist, an examination of the tenuous line between belief and reality, imagination and self, and what happens when that line is crossed."

Later he adds: "The story's about what goes on in her head and how powerful that becomes."

This exploration on the writing of novels is interwoven with solving a crime and a study of relationships. The reader needs to allow plenty of time to read and enjoy this stand-alone novel by the author of the Rowland Sinclair series.

The Woman in the Library

Australian author, Hannah Tigone, is writing a crime novel set in the Boston Public Library. Due to COVID-19 restrictions she is unable to travel to America so an American agrees to read her draft chapters and send any background information that might be required.

The story that Hannah is writing concerns four strangers - Freddie, Marigold, Whit and Cain - who are sitting at the same table in the library when a woman's scream resonates throughout the reading room. Some time later a woman is found dead in an adjoining room.

Freddie, an Australian author on a writing scholarship, decides to base her next book on the events surrounding the scream they heard in the library. Cain is also an author and they soon bond as they discuss writing. Whit is a law student who would rather be a writer while Marigold is a psychology student. The murder forms a bond between the four strangers as they try to find out what really happened, especially as members of the group become suspects.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is a stand alone crime novel by the author of the Rowland Sinclair series. This book is a story within a story but is also the reverse of a locked room senario - this time the crime occurred in an open room in a busy building. As the story unfolds we learn more about the main characters, especially their back story. This is a fast paced crime novel with many twists and turns until the perpetrator of the crime is revealed.

All the tears in China

In the ninth book in the Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill, Rowland is ordered to go to Shanghai by his brother to take part in discussions about selling surplus wool. His brother warns him not to make a final decision on the matter. Rowland suggests that he is not the best person to undertake such a project but his brother insists as he has family matters at home to attend to.

Shanghai in the the mid 1930s is not the safest place to visit as Rowland and his friends, Edwina, Clyde and Milton discover. It is soon obvious that they do not know who to trust especially when Rowland is accused of murder.

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan city with British expats, French, Germans and Japanese mingling with the Chinese. It is a city of politics - communists and non communists (both Chinese and Russian), fascists from Nazi Germany, the Japanese invasion of part of Manchuria - making it often a dangerous place to be, especially when you do not know your way around.

One of the features of the books in this series is that at the beginning of each chapter the author includes part of an actual newspaper article relating to what is happening in the chapter. These articles help explain and add atmosphere to the historical setting of each book.

There is plenty of action and suspense as Rowland's friends attempt to extricate him from the dangerous politcal situation  in which he has become involved.

Gentlemen formerly dressed

The fifth book in Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair series is set in England in 1933 after Rowland and his friends have escaped from Germany. In London Rowland and his brother visit Lord Pierrepont in the hope that they could persuade someone in the British government to listen to Rowland's story about atrocities occurring in Nazi Germany. Unfortunately when they arrive at his rooms they discover that he is dead and his niece who also acts as his assistant is suspected of murdering her uncle. Rowland and his friends attempt to prove the innocence of Allie Dawe and in so doing find themselves in a world of spies and that their lives are in danger. The book is set in London in the time when appeasement with the Germans was paramount. As with her first book Gentill weaves a fictional story with historical fact providing an outline of mistrust and events occurring in the 1930s.

I have not read numbers 2 to 4 in this series but it was still possible to follow the plot, however it probably would be a fuller reading experience to read all the books in the series as published in sequence in order to fully follow the story.

A few right thinking men

Sulari Gentill has created an interesting collection of characters in this addition to Australian crime fiction. The first book in the Rowland Sinclair series was published in 2010. The plot for A few right thinking men is set in Sydney between December 1931 and April 1932. Rowland Sinclair, an artist, lives in a large house in Woollahra with three fellow artists - Ed (Edwina) a sculptor, Clyde a painter and Milton a poet. The political tensions of the early 1930s fuelled to some extent by the economic depression form a major part of the book. Fear of the possible growth of Communism in Australia sees the development of right wing movements including the Old Gard and the New Guard formed to 'protect democracy' in New South Wales. Rowland discovers that his brother is a member of the Old Guard but Rowland's friends have views tending to the left of politics. Rowland manages to continue living in his comfortable lifestyle until his uncle, also named Rowland Sinclair, is murdered. When the police investigation appears to be making little progress Rowland and his friends make their own investigations.

This was a traumatic time in New South Wales politics and Gentill portays a sense of this as Rowland investigates the identity of the people who attacked his uncle. Using the time frame of the story I found it interestingto investigate articles about New South Wales politics in Trove, including the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.