The Sleeping Car Murders

Frenchman Sebastien Japrisot wrote mysteries that were quite different from the usual, formulaic tales; at their best, Japrisot's novels are complex, original, and stylish. The Sleeping Car Murders is typical of Japrisot's excellent work. The plot involves six people who are traveling on a train from Marseille to Paris; someone murders one of the passengers when the train arrives in Paris. Subsequently, other passengers also begin to turn up dead. Japrisot's plots are among the most complex and original in the mystery genre; in The Sleeping Car Murders, one of the characters describes what is happening by saying that the case is like a merry-go-round; the police are chasing the killers, who are chasing the police. The motives for the crime are so obscure that it seems as though someone has attempted to commit the perfect crime. My favorite aspect of Japrisot's novels is the way that he uses words to create vivid pictures in his readers' minds. We use all five senses when reading Japrisot. Consider Japrisot's vivid description of a simple scene in which a police officer makes a cup of coffee while thinking about a murder victim: "The Italian coffeemaker was beginning to whistle at him. He reached out, turned off the gas, brought the pot back to the table in the same motion, and filled one of the two cups in front of him. The steam from the coffee rose in little threads before his face. It was black and bitter, and as he drank he thought about the apartment on the rue Deperre: small, neat, well furnished, and smeling almost sickly sweet, like all the apartments of women who lived alone" (page 33). There are, unfortunately, some drawbacks to The Sleeping Car Murders. The plot is so intricate that it is almost too clever; I think that attentive readers might guess "who done it," but it would be very difficult to guess "how done it." (Owing to the novel's complexity, it would be a great book to read a second time). Given the complex plot, it is easy to feel bewildered while reading this book; Japrisot explains what happened, but the payoff to the reader is all in the last few chapters. The reader has to keep plowing ahead through the puzzling early material prior to the explanation. Fortunately, this is a short book (172 pages), so the "plowing" isn't onerous. Japrisot chose to tell the story in different chapters from the perspective of different characters. These multiple points of view challenge the reader and cause him or her to work harder while reading. With each new chapter, the reader must reorient him- or herself due the changing perspective. If you enjoy mysteries, but want a novel that attempts to break from the genre's limitations, The Sleeping Car Murders is an excellent choice.

This masterfully written novel opens with a terrific scene: the train porter wanders through the cars, picking up the detrius of a long night's travel. He finds a scarf, two raincoats, an umbrella, and a leak in the heating system. Then he finds the corpse and his discovery sets off the usual chain of events: ambulance, police, news reporters.But the title is "The Sleeping-Car Murders": more than one. And indeed, the other passengers of car number 4 begin to die, violently and seemingly at random. Underlying these deaths, though, are the corrupt, evil, and stupid motives of greed and ego. By the final pages, we realise that the incidents are not random--yet even then the denoument is darkly surprising.Japrisot is a master writer. His prose is spare and evocative. He is able to create memorable characters and dark suspense in less than two hundred pages. He sweeps us up into a mystery which is intricate and twisted, and he leaves us shocked and saddened by the evil of human kind.

Sebastian Japrisot's extraordinary noir tale succeeds admirably. His characters are believable and convincing. The plot is intricate but not contrived and the denouement is nothing short of brilliant. Atmospheric and vivid, one can nearly taste and smell the settings within which his characters live the story. A great read.

Japrisot's mystery about a murder on a train has a detective that is rather uninteresting, but like another one of his noir novels, "One Deadly Summer," he manages to pull off a brilliant and original denouement. Japrisot knows how to surprise. His prose is a pleasure to read.