The Case of Compartment 7

THE CASE OF COMPARTMENT 7 is a fun book. John Darnell, the world's first paranormal detective, boards the legendary Orient Express and journeys acorss Europe with a colorful collection of fictionalized historical personalities including Mata Hari, an Eastern European crown prince, and Agatha Christie. Sam McCarver does a great job weaving fact with fiction, and he tells an excellent detective story. There are murders. There's intrigue. There's danger. There's heroics. Here's a book you should read.

A clever mystery onboard the greatest train of all - the Orient Express. Woven in the mystery are unique details of high class train travel in another time. as well as real historical characters intertwined throughout. Sam McCarver's second novel surpasses his first. A delightful read!

Although I am hard-pressed to find any mystery book better than his first book ("The Case of Cabin 13"), I must say that "The Case of Compartment 7", Sam McCarver's second book, may be better than the first. His characters were not only creditable, but believable, likable, and well-formed. I have discovered that some characters were not fictional at all, but rather "real" people from the past integrated with new and interesting characters in a fictional, yet historically-accurate story. The mystery remains for us all until the end of the book; that is, unless someone possibly brighter than myself can figure it out beforehand. I would give this book "three" thumbs-up, if possible, and look forward to Sam McCarver's next book, which I understand is going to be entitled "The Case of the 2nd Seance". Here is hoping that Sam never runs out of "numbers" for the entire series of John Darnell Mysteries.

Psychic detective John Darnell prefers to find human answers to even supernatural incidents. His first famous case involved the maiden voyage of the Titanic. On the ship, John met Penny, the woman he later marries. Two years later, John and Penny are riding on the Orient Express where a week earlier a passenger claimed to have seen an apparition of a bleeding woman. The train's Board of Directors wants to know what is the truth behind the ghost.In 1914, Europe is a powder keg about to explode into war. Riding the Orient Express is two English couriers, a German General, Mata Hari, an industrial spy, the heir to the Romanian monarchy, and Agatha Christie. Two people are murdered and it remains up to John to insure that no one else die and the guilty party is caught.THE CASE OF COMPARTMENT 7 is an entertaining mystery that has the bonus of having Agatha Christie riding the rails. The real persona maintains their known personalities even as they are fully blended into the story line. The action plays against a volatile continent on the verge of World War I. Though somewhat tongue in cheek, Sam McCarver provides an exciting who-done-it that will give much enjoyment to historical mystery fans.