Scala Radio Book Club: Murder On The Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict
Mark Forrest caught up with Alexandra Benedict, discussing her page-turning festive whodunit
Last updated 27th Nov 2022
On Thursday, Mark Forrest welcomed crime author Alexandra Benedict into the Scala Radio Book Club to discuss her new festive novel Murder on the Christmas Express.
Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer. In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again. Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again? All aboard for... murder on the Christmas Express.
Mark opened the interview by asking about the book's setup: “At the beginning of the book, it's the evening of the 23rd of December, who is gathering at a London railway station and where are they going?'
'There's all manner of people gathering at a London railway station. They're getting the sleeper to Fort William, and there we have mainly our main detective, former met Detective Ross Parker, and she's just retired. She's leaving detection behind, or so she thinks, so she will go up to Fort William, retiring to Scotland, where her daughter is about to give birth to a baby and has just gone into premature labour. But she's also going up to Scotland with several other people. There's a reality TV star and her boyfriend. There's a normal-looking family, five of them all there—squabbling, bickering, maybe something simmering underneath. There's a lone woman in the corner. There's an elderly woman and her son. There's a cross-section of society, including four students involved in a quiz competing against each other, which might lead to more than just bickering.
Mark questioned Alexandra Benedict: "At what point in the construction of this novel did you decide who-done-it? Do you know from the start, or do you just allow the characters to develop and work it out by the midpoint?
It varies from book to book for me, but this one, I knew who had done it. I knew who could have done it and why. And then it's a case of mixing it all up, and letting the reader decide for themselves up until as last a minute as I can manage.
Mark queried Alexandra on her inclusion of games into the novel: "There are multi-layered brain teases in this book. There are anagrams. There are pub quiz questions and hidden Kate Bush lyrics. Why all these layers of extra conundrum?"
Partly for me, in my previous books, I did it without letting anyone know. So, in my first few books, I was just having games, just to amuse myself as I went along. And then, in my last book, the Christmas murder game, was explicitly about a game with clues involved. I thought, why not weave that in overtly and let the reader know so they can play along if they want to.
They don't have to. It doesn't make any difference if you don't, but some people like me might like that extra layer or two or three where you can have some more fun along the way.
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