As opposed to thrillers, in which spies and rogue agents routinely travel the world, dashing from Venice to Hong Kong to Rio, most mysteries take place in a single location: a small English village, a country manor, a picturesque community in which everyone knows everyone else’s business. These locales feature suspects with a shared history and a familiarity with their surroundings.
There are a few mysteries, however, in which the cast of characters are in motion—on an ocean cruise, on a train, a bus, an airplane, or (as in the case of my Walk Through England mysteries) on a guided tour. While these give the reader an opportunity to enjoy a range of locales, they also present unique challenges to the detective. Planes, trains, and ships introduce a larger group of suspects with more limited means of committing murder, often in a setting with which they’re not entirely comfortable.
Notable mysteries of this nature can be grouped according to the type of conveyance.
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Cruise Ships
Cruise ships provide an enticing setting for mysteries because murder clearly works against their image as peaceful havens of travel and romance.
Dawn Brookes has written an entire series of mysteries that take place on cruise ships, featuring amateur sleuth Rachel Prince, beginning with A Cruise to Murder. Rachel quickly discovers some of the challenges of investigating a murder at sea: there are few places to run if things get dangerous, and she must solve the case before the ship reaches its final port. One plus, of course, is that the murderer has no place to run either.
Inspired by a journey she took on a Nile steamer when she was in her teams, queen of mystery Agatha Christie added murder to the mix in “Death on the Nile,” one of her personal favorites. Not only do we have one of Dame Agatha’s most clever puzzles, it is told against the backdrop of the Nile and the wonders of ancient Egypt—a blissful combination.
Trains
Trains also have a mystique in our age of jet air travel. They’re typically very confined, with fewer places to hide than a cruise ship. They often make several stops, providing opportunities for suspects to get on board and off easily.
The most famous train-bound murder mystery is undoubtedly Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, in which a diverse group of people are traveling across Europe with a noted detective (Hercule Poirot) who, after a notorious figure is murdered on the train, figures out his travel companions all have something in common. The setting, a train halted due to a snowstorm, ensures that the murderer cannot escape.
Josephine Tey’s Inspector Grant finds death on a train in The Singing Sands, in which enigmatic lines of verse written on a newspaper held by the dead man leads him to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands.
Planes
If murders can happen on ships and trains, why not planes? Heightened airport security might make it more difficult for airborne murderers to carry out their crimes these days, but some may still find a way.
In David Pearson’s Plane Dead, police sergeant Fiona Moore discovers a dead body in her seat on a flight from London to Dublin. She finds herself largely tackling the case alone, as her boss is focusing his attention on wooing the attractive Swedish co-pilot.
Here comes Agatha Christie again. Having written mysteries set on ships and trains, she turned to aviation in “Death in the Air.” In this one, Hercule Poirot discovers murder even closer to hand than usual when a woman seated behind him on a short flight from Paris to London is found dead.
Automobiles
Being on a train, ship, or plane with a killer is frightening enough, but what if they’re with you in your car? That’s what happens to a young couple traveling Canadian highways in their RV in The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens. They give a ride to another young couple, whom they soon realize may be hiding some very deadly secrets.
A similar situation faces Abi and Ben, another young couple. in C.W. Ewan’s Strangers in the Car, as they encounter, while driving home down foggy country roads, a couple whose car has broken down in the highway. The driver, his wife and their newborn baby need a lift to get help, but it might be Abi and Ben who need the help.
Buses
Most people who take buses do so on short excursions in urban areas, but they’re still often the vehicle of choice for tour groups.
The Charabanc Mystery by Miles Burton, a classic from the golden age, tells the tale of a busload of pub patrons on their way to a darts conference. While stopping (and drinking) at every pub they pass, the travelers soon get too tipsy to notice that one of them has been stabbed to death in the front seat.
Set against a backdrop of scenic Cornwall, Dying to Take a Tour features a coach tour of the filming sites for the Poldark television series. When tour guide Demelza Price finds one of the tour members murdered in her bed, the grim possibility arises that one of her other co-travelers might be the killer.
Finally, for sheer fun of following a mystery unfold on a moving landscape, few books can match John Buchan’s classic “The 39 Steps”. It’s technically not a murder mystery—it’s more espionage fiction—but the puzzle of the meaning of the title isn’t revealed until the end. In the meantime, adventurer Richard Hannay, framed for murder, becomes the subject of a massive manhunt that takes him across Scotland, finding his way out of several tight traps along the way.
Next time you take a journey, don’t look for a murder—but grab a mystery to entertain you on the way.
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