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.
January 1, 2020
An alien special agent and his earthly companion have just 56 minutes to solve the murder of the new head of a secret agency. Asked to keep Sir Dennis Gregson, the newest head of the Division, alive during the train trip from Paddington to Bath, Ishmael Jones is surprised to be given such a seemingly mundane job. As an alien with a certain set of skills, including superstrength, heightened awareness, and golden blood, Ishmael is typically assigned more unusual cases by his boss, the Colonel, in his highly secretive and undefined position with the organization. What could possibly go wrong on the short train ride that would warrant the supervision of such an elevated being? Along with Penny Belcourt, his human partner in life and work, Ishmael learns from the Colonel of a potential threat relating to the Psychic Weapons Division, which might mean that an attack on Sir Dennis could pass entirely unseen by any human gaze. Once on the nonstop train ride, Ishmael and Penny have barely settled in when Sir Dennis is indeed killed, leaving behind a car of fellow travelers who are now suspects. This is where Green's latest diverges from his typical work (Till Sudden Death Do Us Part, 2019, etc.), with less focus this time on supernatural powers or forces than on three or four likely murderers, many of whom survive all the way to Bath. Ishmael and Penny methodically interrogate their suspects, each of whom is hiding something that may connect them to Sir Dennis' death and all of whom, truth be told, seem more sympathetic than the dead diplomat. The finale brings Ishmael a shocking piece of information about his own history that may change the path of the series. Fun, fast-paced, light fare that passes almost as quickly as that fatal train ride.
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