On the evening before the Mystery 101 Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Maggy Thorsen and her sheriff boyfriend Jake Pavlik board a train for a pseudo-dinner theater reenactment of Murder on the Orient Express. It's billed as MURDER ON THE ORIENT ESPRESSO, serving only espresso and dessert rather than a full dinner. Jake is one of the conference speakers, and this excursion is a pre- conference adventure, planned by the conference organizer and her assistant. As the guests and actors mix and mingle and begin the reenactment, infamous book reviewer, Larry Potter, is missing when it comes time to play his part. The train stops abruptly on the return trip when the engineer sees that the track has been washed out by the torrential rains throughout the trip, but also because of the gruesome sight just beyond the wash-out. Larry Potter is being eaten by an African Rock Python that has slithered across the track. He also has a knife in his back. Now there is a real murder to solve. Will Jake and Maggy find the killer? With no cell phone reception or communication on the train, will they be rescued before the killer murders again?

Sandra Balzo gives us another installment in her Maggy Thorsen mysteries series. Maggy and Jake are strong, realistic characters supported by a zany cast of characters. The sarcasm in the witty dialogue and the eye- rolling that's described will have you chuckling throughout MURDER ON THE ORIENT ESPRESSO. It seems as though Maggy always gets mixed up with Jake\'s investigations of murder cases. Although Jake is not technically on-duty, he takes charge of the situation and plunges full speed ahead into finding the culprit, with Maggy by his side, interjecting her thoughts and philosophies, wanted or not. Packed with many interesting facts about the flora and fauna of the Everglades and South Florida, MURDER ON THE ORIENT ESPRESSO is a quick, easy read that will certainly delight you.

Book Summary

It's November and Maggy Thorsen, co-owner of the Wisconsin gourmet coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, is in South Florida at an annual crime-writers' conference with her beau, local sheriff Jake Pavlik, who is due to speak as a "forensics expert."

Maggy's pledge to behave solely as a tourist becomes trickier than she anticipated when the conference's opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie's classic, Murder on the Orient Express. As Maggy and Jake reluctantly set off on the night train to the Everglades to solve the "crime," it's clear that, as in the original novel, nothing is quite what it seems. And amidst rumors of careers taken, manuscripts stolen and vows broken, it seems that in the Everglades – as in life – the predator all too often becomes the prey.

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