Customer Reviews

Death Train to Boston: A Fremont Jones Mystery (Fremont Jones Mysteries)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have read all of the books in the Fremont Jones series. I was a little disappointed in "Death Train to Boston", mostly due to the change in writing style. Without giving too much away, Fremont is injured in a train wreck at the onset of the book ~ this results in her character being very passive throughout the story. I prefer the previous novels where Fremont has a more active role. Also, the book constantly flips back and forth from Fremont to Michael, which keeps you reading but can be frustrating. Just when something interesting is about to happen, the action flips to the other character. The good side of this, however, is that the reader gets to see more into Michael's feelings for Fremont.

Overall a very good book, and definitely worth reading. It's just not up to speed with the previous novels in the series.

One of the things that makes the Fremont Jones mysteries so interesting is that the characters are constantly evolving. Another is that the locations often change as well; thus, we're spared the routine similarities between novels in other series. In this, the fifth installment, Fremont and her partner/lover Michael are seperated by an explosion on board a train, while on a case. Fremont is kidnapped by a menacing Mormon intent on making her the sixth of his wives. With both legs broken by the explosion, she must resort to her wiles and powers of persuasion to escape from his clutches. We are back in Study In Scarlet country here. Meanwhile, Michael Kassoff searches desperately for Fremont, while simultaneously eluding an old enemy, and trying to determine who is so deter- mined to kill them that he'd blow up an entire train. Also, he must put up with the wiles of Fremont's friend, Meiling, who has her undergone a few changes of her own. Great fun, as are all the Fremont Jones myste- ries. This is a worthy continuation in an inter- esting series.

This book is a western, not a mystery. It tries to be a mystery, but it relies too heavily on events that happened earlier in the series. In other words, if you haven't read the rest of the series, you have no chance to solve this one and probably won't care enough to try.

Fremont's captivity is disturbing and dull, and I am not interested enough in the supporting characters to enjoy an entire book with them at center stage. Everyone seems to act out of character in this book, and it doesn't help that none of them are quite in step with the time period either. How could it have taken so long for women to get the vote with so many bold adventuresses on the loose?

I loved the first two books in this series, but was disappointed in the last one and EXTREMELY disappointed in this one. Dianne Day may have only one chance left with this reader.

I have enjoyed Ms. Day's Fremont Jones mysteries. They are a bit anachronistic, a bit light on real mystery but still very enjoyable reads. However Death Train to Boston was certainly the worst of the series, so far (am reading Beacon Street Mourning now and even 30 pages in it is a better book).

There was no mystery to this mystery; it was simply a chronicle of Fremont and Michael trying to get back together after a horrific train accident. There was certainly no mystery where the religious fanatic was concerned. I rather hoped he would involved in the sabotage of the S&P that Fremont and Michael were investigating or attached to some other nefarious scheme but I was disappointed. There was no investigation of the sabotage whatsoever, just some half-baked thoughts Michael offered the readers. While finding the woman he loves was very important, if he thought there was some sort of connection shouldn't he have been doing some snooping to confirm or deny that connection rather than hand wringing and grumphing? Please do not get me started on throwing in the bad guy in the last 30 pages with no support as to WHY he was sabotaging the S&P since it was made clear to the reader J&K were called in secretly. Harrumph!

Ms. Day fell into a very nasty habit of repeating herself when it came to emphasizing a character's feelings or thoughts; sometimes four or five paragraph's worth of repetition. The action, such as it was, neither moved the plot along nor provided closure to any portion of that very thin plot. The plot thrashed about with internal discussions and chit chat. Mysteries are action based not character based, Elizabeth George aside, and Ms. Day seems to have forgotten that very important point - she had a good handle on it in her previous books.

There were so many chances to introduce any number of subplots; i.e. Meiling Li's transformation beyond what we were told rather than shown, the S&P sabotage plot, a possible romantic flirtation between Meiling and Michael (I can hear fans muttering angrily already), a chance for a San Francisco case Wish was handling to be tied to all this, the possibility of Melancthon Pratt being far more treachorous and cunning than a mediocre stock heavy, the heavy-handed introduction of Hilliard Ramsey could have signalled so many future possibilities for stories.... do I need to go on?

We are served up something that reads more like poorly edited journal entries than a story. Editors are getting lazier and lazier when they allow this sort of drivel to be published when even a casual reader of Ms. Day's work can see that she has written stories with far more craft and style than this book.

Very, very disappointed in this entry in the series.

Having thoroughly enjoyed all the other Fremont Jones books, I was sorely disappointed with "Death Train to Boston" .There was no mystery to speak of,no real sense of place ( Dianne Day always excelled at this ) and the characters were poorly defined. So many questions were left unresolved that I can only assume that this book was written as a lead-in to the next in the series.Do yourself a favor and skip it .

I LOVED the first two Fremont Jones mysteries, the third was okay, the forth was not so good, but this one... AWFUL. Unreadable. I'm so surprised that after such a strong start to the series, we get this bomb. Day writes from alternating points of view, which is not as charming as her usual first person Fremont perspective. Also, didn't like the way she portrayed the Mormon faith. It seemed like she had an ax to grind... I say, send Fremont back to San Fran and keep it simple and rich in detail about the history of the city. This is where both author and character thrive.

Death Train to Boston was a disappointment for a variety of reasons. Let's start with the name. Death Train to Boston? That's just a horrible title. But in the interest of not judging a book by its cover (or its name) let's delve a little deeper. The previous four books starring Fremont Jones were mysteries, and Death Train to Boston is also marketed as a mystery, but the thing is, it's not. Granted, there is a mystery involved, but the mystery takes a minor second-stage to the main tale, which is more of an action/drama than anything else. The thing is, I quite enjoyed the little misadventure that Fremont got herself into, as well as the adventures that her partner (the Watson to her Holmes) Michael Kossoff and her friend Meiling Li have while searching for her... but those things would have made an awesome backdrop to a mystery. Instead, they all but supplant the weak little mystery which somewhat lurks in the background of the tale until the very end, when it rears its weak little head in order to be rapidly squashed by Fremont, Michael and Meiling. And to make matters worse, the villain turns out to be one of the bad guys from a previous book in this series, not even someone original. I definitely felt let down.

DTTB is the least satisfying book of the Fremont Jones series. Specifically:
Why is the fact that Pratt has kidnapped Fremont not expounded upon? Just because he is Mormon doesn't mean he is a criminal. And did he kidnap the other wives?

It seems incredible to think that the Pratt wives would do anything against their husband. The wives making Fremont leave was simply too hard to believe. It was completely against their character.

What the heck happened to the Pratt wives? And what fallout happened with Pratt?

Why wouldn't the doctor help Fremont?

The book just closes the door on the Mormon storyline and has Fremont saving Michael. It was all very UNFULFILLING.
Skip this book and move on to Beacon Street Mourning.

I've read all the books in the Freemont Jones series, and up until now I've enjoyed them very much. This installment left something to be desired though. It started out well enough but it seemed like too many threads were started and never finished. As the book went on it just got more and more shallow and by the end I felt like Day was just trying to wrap things up as fast as possible with no real resolution - or at least nothing satisfying. Maybe I was in a hyper critical mood when I read this one, but in retrospect I just don't feel it was worth my time.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the other four books in the Fremont Jones Series, but as I was reading it I started to get huge pangs of disappointment. I was really excited to read this one because it took place in Utah. While reading it, I thought it was very obivous that the author did not have a clue about mormonology. Was the polygamist guy supposed to be the villian? Confusing! If I didn't know anything about the infamous polygamist culture and traditions, I would still be ignorant after reading this book. It seemed towards the end that the author tried to end the book as quickly as possible because it wasn't going anywhere. I won't be buying this one for my collection because I wouldn't read it again. But I am a proud owner of the previous 4 books though!