THE GILT EXPRESS

When Detective Inspector Thomas Carver finally takes the long-overdue holiday his wife Elspeth has been pushing for — twelve days aboard the legendary Gilt Express, London to Venice — he promises no cases, no crime scenes, nothing but Champagne and scenery. That promise lasts less than a day. Among the forty-six passengers sharing the train's gilded carriages: a senator traveling under a false name, fleeing federal fraud charges. A countess with thirty years of secrets buried beneath a hidden compartment's parquet floor. A young woman who is not who her companion claims she is. And a wealthy, watchful man whose blackmail will get him killed before the train reaches Burgundy. When the body is found the next morning — poisoned, then finished with surgical precision — Thomas finds himself the only detective on a train hurtling through three countries with no jurisdiction, no backup, and a wife who turns out to be a considerably better investigator than either of them expected. As the true scope of the conspiracy unfolds — stolen Renaissance jewels, a six-decade smuggling network, and a buyer who has not personally appeared for an acquisition in fifteen years — Thomas and Elspeth must work together to unmask a killer before The Gilt Express reaches Venice, where an old, cultured collector is waiting for delivery of something considerably more dangerous than diamonds. A novel of murder, marriage, and the particular romance of trains — where every fellow passenger is a stranger, and every stranger might be lying.