Finally, a Christmas novel even my husband is enjoying! It took David Baldacci's novel The Christmas Train (#789) which has been around for awhile to do it. It's my book club's December selection, when we try to find something upbeat and uplifting to read (which isn't easy these days!). Since it still took me weeks of waiting to get my hands on this sixteen year old novel, my husband was intrigued.
The action in the book takes place aboard two AMTRAK trains, The Capitol Limited from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, and on the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles. Tom Langdon is a former Middle East correspondent, who for reasons explained in the book, must travel on from Europe to Los Angeles by train in time for Christmas. Naturally, he's impatient to get where he's going, but along the way, the people he meets and the events on the train convince him that the journey itself will make a good subject for a story, and help him complete his dying father's wish. He might as well do that, since he doesn't have anything else to tie him down. As he watches the other passengers, he can't help but feel some regrets for what might have been in a season so important for family and friends.
But the trip is interrupted by a crime spree aboard, and Mother Nature has a way of throwing a spanner in the works of the best laid plans. It all makes for a very entertaining and suspenseful holiday read. It you are a fan of holiday fare (which I most definitely am!) and haven't read The Christmas Train yet, put it on your Christmas list!
By the way, since by the time I finished reading this book, I had a real yen to take this trip myself by rail, I checked. AMTRAK does still run both The Capitol Limited and The Southwest Chief, so you can follow in Tom Langdon's footsteps, if you're so inclined. I might suggest you not try it in winter!
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