"Fun read with nods to Christie, grief, and memento mori" - review of FIVE FOUND DEAD

FIVE FOUND DEAD by Sulari Gentill (Poisoned Pen Press, August 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

On a train, there are only so many places to hide… Crime fiction author Joe Penvale has won the most brutal battle of his life. Now that he has finished his intense medical treatment, he and his twin sister, Meredith, are boarding the glorious Orient Express in Paris, hoping for some much-needed rest and rejuvenation. Meredith also hopes that the literary ghosts on the train will nudge Joe's muse awake, and he'll be inspired to write again. And he is; after their first evening spent getting to know some of their fellow travelers, Joe pulls out his laptop and opens a new document. Seems like this trip is just what the doctor ordered…

And then some. The next morning, Joe and Meredith are shocked to witness that the cabin next door has become a crime scene, bathed in blood but with no body in sight. The pair soon find themselves caught up in an Agatha Christie-esque murder investigation. Without any help from the authorities, and with the victim still not found, Joe and Meredith are asked to join a group of fellow passengers with law enforcement backgrounds to look into the mysterious disappearance of the man in Cabin16G. But when the steward guarding the crime scene is murdered, it marks the beginning of a killing spree which leaves five found dead―and one still missing. Now Joe and Meredith must fight once again to preserve their newfound future and to catch a cunning killer before they reach the end of the line.

The Orient Express. An iconic multi-day train journey between Paris and Istanbul that for more than a century has symbolised both luxury travel, and murder, thanks to Agatha Christie’s iconic 1934 novel. The mere words can’t help but conjure images of a moustachioed Belgian sleuth, in whichever of his various forms, from Albert Finney to Kenneth Branagh, Alfred Molina to David Suchet.

While there is no Poirot in sight, there are plenty of sleuths on board in Five Found Dead, Sri Lankan-Australian crime writer Sulari Gentill’s modern homage to the Christie Classic. Narrator Meredith is a lawyer accompanying her twin Joe on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, celebrating Joe surviving a life-threatening illness, and to hopefully rekindle his crime writing mojo. Their fellow passengers include former spies, police officers, private eyes, and a pair of sisters on the trail of a swindler. Suspicious? Or merely to be expected given the iconic train’s drawcard mix of literary history and luxury?

Joe’s muse is stirred by the setting and company; on the first evening he begins to write again. But the next morning the murder mysteries become all-too-real, as the cabin next door is bathed in blood. But where’s the body? Cut off from the outside due to various factors, including a COVID strain tearing through parts of the train, Joe and Meredith are requested to join a group looking to find answers. But what if one of them is the killer? Especially as other bodies begin to show up.

Gentill, who earlier this year won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for her novel The Mystery Writer at the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, clearly has lots of love for Golden Age-style mysteries given her own terrific series set in 1930s Australia starring artist-sleuth Rowly Sinclair. She appears to be thoroughly enjoying herself with Five Found Dead, a clever and engrossing mystery that like her prior novel plays with the mystery genre, and has plenty of winks and nods to Christie, Hitchcock, and others. There’s even an appearance by real-life Australian books podcasters Flex & Herds (who host "Death of the Reader", which deep-dives into classic and foreign mystery fiction), who enthusiastically (and dangerously?) insert themselves into the investigation.

It’s a fun read, and more, that like Christie herself at times, rides the implausibility curve to its limits. But there’s depth here too, Gentill threads in nods to memento mori and meditations on the fragility of life – perhaps inspired by her own cancer scare - as Joe and others confront their mortality..

[This review was first published in Deadly Pleasures magazine in the United States]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.