Death on the Trans-Siberian Express by C. J. Farrington is the first book by the author and it’s the first in an Olga Pushkin series. As you would expect from the title it’s a murder mystery, but the very different contemporary Siberian setting was an enjoyable change for me, although I have to say that it took me a while to get into the book, this is inevitable with the first in a series I think.

Olga Pushkin is a Railway Engineer (Third Class) based in Siberia, a very rural area where her main job is to maintain the tracks. However Olga has dreams, her father had forced her to follow him into work on the railway, although he hasn’t worked for years and he’s now a drunkard. Olga’s mother is dead so she lives with her father alone and Olga is such a soft and kind soul that she ends up doing good turns for everyone and putting herself last. But in her heart she longs to be a writer and wants to study literature at the Tomsk State University. Meanwhiel she’s writing a book called Find Your Rail Self: 100 Life Lessons from the Trans Siberian Railway.

But for years there has been a serial murderer opertaing on the Trans-Siberian Railway and one night Olga is felled by a body hitting her, it had been thrown from a train as she walked along by the side of the track. It’s the beginning of her involvement in the investigation.

I really liked the character Olga Pushkin and I plan to read the next one in the series. I am thankful I was sent a digital copy of this book from Constable via NetGalley.