Danger at Dead Man's Pass (Adventures on Train)

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However, the genius of this series is in the originality of the way the crimes are committed, the excellent cast of suspects to choose from and (my personal favourite) the feeling of being swept off on a spectacular train journey to discover yet another fascinating corner of the world. After completing artistic studies she made a career in advertising and has been the founder and owner of a small award winning design and trade business. Although I'm still interested in continuing this series, this story was probably the worst in the series.

And so it is with Danger At Dead Man's Pass that takes the series to somewhere spooky and spectral and (when the resolution comes) deeply moving. This is the first mystery that wasn't set on a train, centering around an unusual German family and a Baskerville-style legend of a witch lurking in the darkness of the cliffs. Join the crew and tell us what you thought of this month’s title, discover other brilliant books in our gallery of reading recommendations, stay updated by signing up to our newsletter and make some tasty book-themed snacks for your Book Club! A pretty good adventure story, and personally speaking, I find it to be one of the best in the series so far; while the last book greatly elevated the stakes, this one builds on that foundation by crafting an eerie and memorable atmosphere in the Kranzenstein family home. And the people were not Americans pretending to be European (some authors have trouble writing the difference).

If I could add one small caveat with this book then it would be that there are too many characters, which made things confusing, and quite a lot of them are similarly named also. The attention to detail over this is brilliant, because there is no difference in line strength in the drawings - it is done with cross-hatchings rather than the style of the earlier books which mimics different pencil strengths. Hal and his Uncle Nat were as wonderful as ever, with some new characters that added depth and intrigue to the story, as well as several atmospheric locations that really added to the experience. Baron Essenbach, who hired them, gives the pair information and asks them to investigate a suspicious death.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the other books in the Adventures on Trains series – you can still enjoy Danger at Dead Man’s Pass as a book on it’s own! Whilst Hal and Nat did travel to reach the crime scene and trains were still a key component of the story, I did miss the element of a crime occurring on a train and needing to be solved before it reaches its final destination. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman, as Harrison Beck investigates an ancient family curse high in the German mountains. She has a first-class honours degree in English literature and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London.

From a creaking old house at the foot of the Harz mountains, they take the Kratzenstein family's funeral train to the peak of the Brocken Mountain. Join Hal and Uncle Nat on more stops in this thrilling series with: The Highland Falcon Thief , Kidnap on the California Comet , Murder on the Safari Star and Sabotage on the Solar Express. We often read this together at bed times and quite often we'd end up with a late night just to read one more chapter, surely a good sign. Uncle Nat largely fades to the background, and personally, that's for the best; Hal's relationship with the kids is fun to watch, and while a larger cast means he (and consequently, we) have less time to build ties to any of the characters introduced as we have in previous iterations, the side-characters are still largely memorable and play their own role in the story without seeming like fluff pieces there to drift about. As soon as you read the authors' dedication page you know that this isn't going to be your typical train story.

There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in terms of plot, structure, and simply getting everybody into the right place at the right time. Ultimately that didn't really stop us from enjoying the book, but I think the final details when Hal explains things were somewhat lost on us as we weren't clear even then who was who. We’re delighted to bring you this thrilling adventure to enjoy in a book club setting – whether with friends, family or your school mates. Our book boxes are always packed with the very best books and are full of fun, educational activities to ensure our detectives develop key reading skills. There's a scene at the end, for example, that is just deliciously tense nailbiting stuff and normally I'd be all 'yeah, whatever' but because it's written by Leonard and Sedgman, it is BRILLIANT.I have read each entry within hours of getting it, swept away by all the clues and red-herrings, and the general adventure of being aboard a train. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This time however the adventure is planned as Nat has been invited to travel by train to help solve a mystery.