A young bride was the victim of a passionate crime on board the train many years ago. Now her blood-drenched ghost has appeared to one passenger and the management would like John to be on hand should she appear a second time. Indeed she does, almost immediately, to a wealthy young woman who has just eloped with a struggling artist. John investigates but does not have much time to spend on the case when a courier for the British government is found murdered in his compartment.

Set just before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary prior to World War I, the train is filled with an assortment of unusual characters, many based on real people: a young Agatha Miller, who later becomes Agatha Christie, Mata Hari, who is just getting her start as a double agent and traveling with a German general, and Anna Held, the former wife of Flo Ziegfeld. Also aboard are a jewel thief, a man who has stolen his company’s plans for airplanes and a psychic Madame Yolanda Morgana. Traveling in second class are Greek and Turkish men that act very suspicious, and in a private car, young Prince Carol of Rumania.

The first death is ruled a possible suicide, but as the train hurtles through Europe to its destinations of Bucharest, Budapest and Constantinople, more intrigue arises, along with the predictions of more death aboard the train and one that war is about to break out in Europe.

Although this mystery is not for the pure historian, it is a wonderful addition to the new genre of mysteries set in such historical surroundings as the Titanic or Orient Express. While it is highly unlikely that all these exotic characters would meet up and once, it is wonderful fun to see things they might have experienced along the road to fame.

The mysteries in The Case of Compartment 7 have several delightful layers: the aberration appearing, the courier’s murder and later the general’s, along with secret documents that several people are carrying. With the right amount of train board romance among passengers thrown in, the pace of the book matches that of its main character, the Orient Express. McCarver sums up the characters’ futures nicely in an epilogue, which puts them back into their historic perspective.

The Case of Compartment 7 is a fun, fast read for all fans of this time period. John and Penny are emerging as a formidable team that will have readers looking forward to their next adventure.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry