About The Book:

Pages: 384

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Publisher: Avon Books

Format I read it in: Uncorrected Proof

Rating: ★★★

You’re trapped underground. There’s no way out. And there’s a killer on the loose…When former Detective Inspector Jess boards the London Underground, it should be just a few short stops home. But as the tube barrels towards Baker Street, it’s brought to an abrupt stop, and they’re plunged into the darkness.

And then she hears the screeching.

Jess pushes through into the driver’s cabin. There, she finds his lifeless body, and stab wounds in his neck, still bleeding. But if nobody could get into the cabin from the outside, and nobody else could get into Jess’s carriage, the realization strikes there’s a murderer among the passengers.

With no escape from the train, and in the pitch black, Jess is thrust into a deadly game. Every commuter becomes a potential threat, and time is ticking on relentlessly. In a race against the unknown murderer, Jess must unravel the sinister truth before the killer strikes again…

My Thoughts:

My favourite part about “The Train From Platform 2” was the beginning. Even though I knew the synopsis and knew the characters will be stuck on a train, it still intrigued me. Jess is our main character and as a former Detective Inspector, the one most capable of taking control of the situation. But aside from Jess, we meet the other characters from the carriage as well, all interesting and mysterious in their own way. Knowing that the murderer is among them, everyone is suspicious of each other, and everyone is hiding secrets. I could feel the tension in that carriage oozing through the pages.

Unfortunately, this is where the tension and thriller elements left the chat.

What followed was plenty of conversations between everyone that didn’t reveal anything new, and this theme followed to the very end. It’s quite disappointing in books like these, where you quickly realise that the people stuck at the murder scene don’t know each other, and the motive for murder is a hidden one. And you cannot get any hints because every single character is lying. It was hard for me as the reader, to try and predict anything. 

At the end, I thought maybe we will get more action when people split into groups and one group chose to leave the train and walk to the next platform, but I was wrong. Sure, something did happen, in a very unsurprising way, and the next thing we know is we have a culprit. And we find out that the reason “why” wasn’t even mentioned in the book (please let me know in case there is a hint I have missed). It’s a secret the character kept. On top of that, the circumstances of the murder were completely left to chance and almost all stars aligned that day for the murderer to get such an opportunity. I am sure the chances of this happening is less likely than winning the lottery. With chances that slim, this book was way too unbelievable for my taste. 

Apart from the murder issues, I have to admit that I really liked the characters.

Each with a unique story that makes you suspicious of them, and each with their own beliefs, experiences, and secrets – purposely made so that opinions clash in that carriage. They are all hiding something and looking out for themselves. The book touched on a lot of important topics and how people have unconscious biases. I just wish there was a bit more to the plot, as the book started off so well.

Overall, I’d still recommend it if you like locked-room mysteries and good characters. But it sounds very believable when you’re reading it. I enjoyed that we were finding out clues at the same time that Amanda was. Some of the reveals were a bit predictable. With the ending, I wasn’t surprised by how it ended, and it was slightly deflating. But the aftermath made up for it, so it was quite satisfying after all. I would definitely recommend this book to any murder mystery fan. 

About the Author:

Stephanie Steele lives in Manchester, where she was born and raised. After spending her twenties down in London and some time in Sydney, Australia, she moved back home, where she’s been settled ever since with her partner and dog, Butter. When not writing she works for a food consultancy, putting her years as a chef to good use, and in her spare time can usually be found reading, hassling the dog, and watching Law & Order and reality TV.

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