Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Journeys can sometimes take on lives of their own. Some journeys are pleasant, they teach us a lot, and they give us memories to last a lifetime. Others, though, are fraught with trouble and worry. Either way, they can be very effective backdrops for crime novels because, after all, anything can happen.

In Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, a group of passengers sets out on a three-day journey across Europe on the world-famous Orient Express train. On the second night out, American businessman Samuel Ratchett is stabbed in his compartment. Hercule Poirot is on the same train, and he is asked to see if he can find the killer before the train reaches the next country border. The only possible suspects are the other passengers in the same car, so that limits the pool of possible murderers. As if the murder isn’t enough, a snowstorm has stranded the train. It ends up being a very unpleasant trip for just about everyone.

Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow is the story of Smilla Jaspersen, a Greenlander who now lives in Copenhagen. One day, a young boy, Isaiah Christiansen, who lives in Smilla’s building, dies of a tragic fall from the roof. At first, it’s put down to a terrible accident. But Smilla knows snow. She can tell by the markings in the snow on the roof that this fall was probably not an accident. She feels a connection to the boy, since he was Inuit like her. So, she starts asking questions. Her search for answers leads her on a dangerous journey back to Greenland, where she finds that Isaiah’s death has its roots.

As Helen Fitzgerald The Cry begins, Joanna Lindsay and her partner Alistair Robinson are on their way from Joanna’s native Scotland to Alistair’s native Melbourne. The flight is, of course, very long, and it’s fraught with tension. They’ve brought their nine-week-old son Noah with them, and he’s not doing very well on the flight. He rarely stops crying, which of course annoys all of the other passengers, even leading some of them to question Joanna’s parenting. The flight finally lands, and Joanna, Alistair, and Noah set off on the second part of their journey, the drive from the airport to the town where Alistair grew up. Along the way, Joanna and Alistair are faced with every loving parent’s worst fear: Noah is gone. Very quickly, everyone rallies around the parents and there’s a massive search for Noah. No sign of him turns up, though, not even a body. Soon enough, the police and the media start to question whether Joanna and/or Alistair might have had something to do with the baby’s disappearance. No-one can prove anything, but the gossip is clearly against them. It’s all a nightmare for everyone involved.

Stark Holborn’s Nunslinger is a series of ten connected novellas that take place beginning in 1864. They trace the journey of Sister Thomas Josephine from the St. Louis convent, where she lives, to Sacramento, California, where she hopes to make a new start. Along the way, Sister Josephine encounters all sorts of dangers, obstacles, and more. For example, in the first book, the wagon train Sister Josephine has joined has been attacked, and everyone left stranded. Her unlikely rescuer is an outlaw who faces his own obstacles, but he does his best to protect Sister Josephine. As her travel continues, Sister Josephine runs into some dangerous people and terrible crimes, including murder.

Jock Serong’s Preservation, which takes place in 1797, is the fictional retelling of the story of the wreck of the Sydney Cove. In the novel, the ship has wrecked near what is now Tasmania. Seventeen crew members decide to take whatever they can salvage, and travel from Tasmania to Sydney, which was the ship’s original destination. There isn’t another boat around, so the group decides to go by land. By the time they reach Sydney, only three of the original survivors are still alive. All three are in terrible physical condition and need immediate medical attention. Very gradually, though, they begin to heal, and Lieutenant Joshua Grayling is tasked with finding out what happened to them. He begins by interviewing all three. Their stories, combined with other things he learns, allow Grayling to piece together the story, and it’s an ugly one. Plenty of crimes, including murder, have been committed.

And then there’s S.J. Holliday’s Violet. In the novel, Violet has just broken up with her boyfriend Sam. They’d planned to travel across Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Express, but she’s not sure what she’s going to do now, as she’s more or less stranded in Beijing, with no train tickets available. Then, she happens to meet Carrie, who’s also planning to take the Trans-Siberian Express. Carrie had planned to take the trip with another friend, who’s now laid up and can’t go. So, she offers her other ticket to Violet. The two begin the long trip on an optimistic note, but little by little, things start to unravel. One of them is not who she seems to be, and the trip soon takes some unexpected and dangerous turns.

And that’s the thing about journeys, especially long ones. Even if nothing disastrous happens, there can be all sorts of trouble and annoyance. And in crime fiction, you can never guarantee that disaster won’t strike. These are just a few examples. Your turn.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s Travelin’ Prayer.