Night Train to Murder

January 6, 2020
In Green’s decent eighth paranormal mystery featuring disguised alien Ishmael Jones (after 2019’s Till Sudden Death Do Us Part), Jones—whose spaceship crashed in England in 1963 and was transformed by the ship’s machines into the simulacrum of a human—and his partner in the secret group called the Organization, Penny Belcourt, are tasked with guarding the new head of Britain’s Psychic Weapons Division, Sir Dennis Gregson, on a late-night train from London to Bath. Steps have been taken to keep Gregson alive, but Jones and Belcourt’s track record of “catching killers, if not always protecting their victims,” is unfortunately extended. After Gregson goes to the bathroom, he’s found on the toilet, with his neck broken, behind a locked door. Jones focuses on the surviving three passengers and Gregson’s bodyguard, but neither Jones nor Belcourt saw any of the four approach the bathroom between the time Gregson entered it and the discovery of his body. Never mind that a human detective could have done as well in solving the crime. This entertaining romp is one of the series’ better entries.