
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: fantasy, fantasy mystery, gaslamp, witches
Pages: 448
Published by Titan Books on June 17, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
It’s Murder on the Orient Express – with witches!
A thrilling blend of fantasy and classic murder mystery, this rollicking adventure with a wide cast of suspects is ideal for those who love both Agatha Christie and V. E. Schwab, and are drawn to stories that take place in a vivid fantasy world.The Linde siblings—Kellen, Davina, and Morel—are anxious to return to the kingdom of Halgyr before their father dies, leaving Kellen to assume the throne as king. They book tickets on a luxury express train, expecting a swift journey home—but disaster strikes when the train engine explodes, stranding the siblings atop a caldera bubbling with volcanic magic.
The crash triggers Davina’s latent witch powers, but her magic disrupts her ability to remember what she was doing when the explosion took place. While a witch would be the prime suspect for the catastrophe, the only ones who knew Davina might become one are her brothers—who never warned her. And, to add insult to injury, somebody is bumping off the surviving train crew and passengers. But it can’t be Davina, can it?
While the remaining passengers try to determine who sabotaged the engine and catch the killer, the fractured siblings attempt to stay one step ahead, concealing not only Davina’s powers but their own secrets. Luckily, they aren’t the only shifty characters on the train…
A thrilling blend of classic murder mystery and fantasy for those who love Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile every bit as much as Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses.
My Review:
The Linde siblings, Morel and Davina, come to glittering, progressive Pesca to deliver bad news to their older brother Kellen, who is on the embassy staff there on behalf of their homeland, the mysterious, secretive, kingdom of Halgyr.
And the secrets immediately start spilling out.
Kellen may appear to be just a rising young star on the Embassy staff, which he certainly is, but it’s also a ruse and a cover identity of extreme delicacy. Kellen is the heir to the throne of Halgyr, his brother Morel is the spare, and their sister Davina is a real princess chafing at the bounds of her gilded but secure cage.
The news that Morel and Davina have brought to Kellen is that their father, THE KING, is dying, and that Kellen needs to get himself home and fast. His siblings brought him the message personally because the train that made their journey is the fastest method of transit from Pesca to Halgyr through the vast, sparsely inhabited and constantly contested caldera lands that lie between.
Which puts the three siblings on the luxury express train two nights later, headed home by the quickest route, hoping that they’ll be able to see their father one last time before his end. Hoping that their secrets will hold up to the minimal scrutiny that the rich receive even when traveling between countries that are almost constantly courting armed conflict.
Of course, that’s when the situation goes completely pear-shaped in a way that is guaranteed to make readers see shades of Murder on the Orient Express. Except that it’s not a natural but annoying snowstorm that has stopped this train – and there’s no Poirot available to solve the mystery.
Make that mysteries, plural.
Because this train isn’t merely halted, it’s outright crashed. In a remote valley, cut off from all hope of rescue by a magically blown up bridge in back and a magically conjured boulder in front – fused to the engine itself.
And even as Kellen, out of a sense of duty and a desperate desire to keep himself busy – and his secrets intact – begins a very amateur investigation of the crash, the remaining survivors start dying. Not from the witchcraft that derailed the train in the first place, but by the expert application of a sharpened blade to the throat. Throats. One after another.
Someone stopped the train. Someone is cutting throats. Is it the same someone? Do they have the same motives? Will there be enough time to figure things out before the throatcutter runs out of throats?
It’s really too bad there’s no Poirot on this Express, because his expertise would have been very helpful. Even if he would have inevitably exposed too many of everyone’s secrets. Especially Kellen’s.
Escape Rating B: Death on the Caldera is an absolutely captivating gaslamp fantasy mystery. There’s also a whole lot packed into this story that isn’t necessarily all satisfactorily explained or worked through, but a good reading time is absolutely had by all – especially if you love fantasy and/or SF mystery blends. Which this reader absolutely does.
It’s hard to miss the callback to Murder on the Orient Express, and I have to admit that the resemblance carried me over a fair number of open spaces on those tracks. But the resemblances to Christie’s classic mostly serve as framework for all the other elements that are roiling through this story, so it’s not a good idea to get too caught up in the similarities.
What the story is precariously balanced over are the many, many secrets that are held by the passengers, the two countries they mostly represent, and the contested territory the train has gotten itself stuck in.
It’s relatively simple – and utterly fascinating – to follow the human elements. The political and criminal as well as the political criminals and the criminal politics and politicians, and layer upon layer that are steeped in the history of this world that we don’t know nearly enough about. (Then again, that’s always my issue, that I want to know more than any single story has got time to delve into.)
At the heart of this mystery, at least the side of it that’s the human parts, is the relationship between the Linde siblings, their collective and not all that great relationship with their parents, and the secret that both brothers have been keeping from Davina. The secret about Davina is a big part of the stew of the story.
Davina is a witch. Her mother was too. But the actual talent only manifests in women although, as it turns out, the males can pass witchcraft onto their female offspring, which absolutely IS relevant in the story.
The fear driving the Linde brothers is that their sister could be responsible for the damage to the train. The anger driving Davina’s behavior during this whole mess is that both of them knew and neither of them told her. She’s an adult, if just barely, so she really did need to know and they really should have told her. Even in her sometimes still childish tantrums Davina’s not wrong about nearly all of her resentments, only that this isn’t the time and place to act out.
There are also ginormous secrets about the royal house of Halgyr that will have worldwide catastrophic implications if they come out. Which they are in danger of doing because Kellen is a hot mess through this whole, well, mess.
That’s not all. In fact, that’s far, far, far, from all. To the point where it feels like there’s about three books worth of ramifications teasing at the edges of this one story. And I want all of them. Really, truly.
In the end, this does resolve all of its issues on the microcosm level. Davina’s secret is mostly kept. The Linde family secrets are mostly kept but there are plenty of problems left to deal with another day. The criminal issues of the one country’s Lord’s Council are mostly resolved because most of the perpetrators end up dead. The territorial claims of the witches and the ‘left behind’ internal refugees of the caldera region are mostly left up in the air – in a few cases literally because witchcraft.
Those territorial claims, and the status of the entire caldera region, are clearly left simmering. Quite possibly well above simmer, as two explosive elements of that conflict have banded together with what will likely be catastrophic results in a future story. One I’d really, really, REALLY like to read!