Riley Sager’s With a Vengeance is a locked-room thriller on rails—literally. Set aboard a restored 1950s luxury sleeper train hurtling through the American Midwest, this novel is part homage, part reinvention. There’s a distinctly Agatha Christie vibe running beneath its polished surface, but Sager adds sharper teeth, deeper shadows, and a disarming emotional core. What begins as a glamorous press junket quickly spirals into claustrophobia, paranoia, and bloodshed.
Six passengers. One killer. And no stops until Chicago.
The story follows Harper Wynn, a lifestyle journalist invited aboard the inaugural run of The Twilight Line—a restored mid-century train repurposed as a luxury travel experience. Harper, still recovering from personal loss and professional scandal, is here to report on the journey and rebrand her reputation. But when another guest turns up dead, suspicion blankets the entire car. Everyone has secrets. Some are fresh. Some are decades old. And the train isn’t stopping until someone answers for it all.
At its core, this is a story about guilt—who carries it, who runs from it, and who lets it become motive. The murder is the fuse, but grief and justice are the dynamite. Sager tightens the mystery while exploring themes of personal reinvention, trauma, and the danger of nostalgia.
The setting functions as more than novelty—it’s a crucible. The lack of exit points enhances every conversation, every sidelong glance. You feel the pressure of confinement, the slow ratcheting of fear, the way metal vibrates when something’s about to snap.
The dinner scene in the observation car—complete with candlelight, gloved hands, and a sudden accusation—reads like a murder-mystery party until it doesn’t. And the late reveal in the sleeper berth mirror? Chilling. Sager knows how to stage a moment, then flip it sideways.
I’ve always loved stories where characters are physically trapped in beautiful places—cruise ships, remote lodges, ornate trains. There’s something about the dissonance between comfort and threat that mirrors the kind of fiction I write. With a Vengeance reminded me how powerful it is to let setting drive story—not just in a scenic sense, but emotionally. The train becomes a symbol for Harper’s internal journey: glamorous on the outside, haunted underneath, hurtling toward a reckoning she can’t avoid.
As a writer, it made me think differently about structure. How can location itself force character growth? How do I build pressure without having to speed up the plot? These questions have already found their way into my current project—where three teenagers explore a buried vault that changes depending on what they bring into it. Sager’s elegant entrapment reminded me: sometimes the scariest thing isn’t being chased. It’s having nowhere to go.
Riley Sager delivers a tightly wound, emotionally loaded thriller with With a Vengeance. It's both nostalgic and unsettling, smart and fast-paced, with moments of real heart beneath the paranoia. If you're a fan of twisty psychological suspense with strong atmosphere and creeping dread, this one belongs in your bag—preferably with the lights on and the door locked.
Jamie Bucuy is a psychological horror and thriller writer with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. With a passion for exploring the darker facets of human nature, Jamie brings a keen analytical eye to the genre. His reviews combine literary insight with a deep understanding of the craft, providing readers with thoughtful perspectives on modern and classic horror and suspense fiction.
