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The Paris Express
- Author
- Emma Donoghue
- Narrator
- Justin Avoth
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publish Date
- 20 March 2025
- Run Time
- 7 hours 15 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Rating
- 4.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
In this riveting historical thriller, a deadly plot unfolds aboard a train hurtling towards Paris. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Room, Emma Donoghue takes you on a heart-pounding ride in The Paris Express.
'Ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the train itself' – Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam
'Riveting' – The Washington Post
'All about speed . . . this novel is a masterclass' – The Independent
Paris, 1895. Glamour hides a city on the brink. One morning, a young woman boards the Granville express with a deadly plan.
On the journey lives intertwine in explosive ways. There are the railway crew who have everything to lose, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an elderly statesman with his fragile wife and a lonely artist far from home.
The train speeds towards the City of Light and into a future that will change everything . . .
'An edge-of-your-seat historical thriller that I couldn't put down' – Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
Critics Review
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A zippy Agatha Christie-like thriller giving a taste of life in fin-de-siècle France
The Guardian
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A pacy read of secrets and lies
The i Paper
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The Paris Express is all about speed, and its heady corollary, escape. Good writing is also about momentum, and another corollary, the suspension of disbelief. This novel is a masterclass in both: an engrossing narrative, married to its intrinsic specificity, the joy of details
The Independent
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A riveting mix of social commentary and mystery . . . has much in common with Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express . . . If the steam engine is an astonishing feat of engineering, so is Donoghue’s propulsive and thought-provoking 16th novel
The Washington Post
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Donoghue deftly combines thriller and mystery elements with her trademark historical fiction . . . To say more about it would be to spoil the luxurious enjoyment of sinking into the multifaceted narrative that [she] creates
The Sunday Times (Ireland)
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A nail-biter – and you'll learn some history, too
People
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Donoghue's historical fiction holds a special place in my heart . . . [she] is not a timid custodian of the past but an excavator, digging beneath bromides to unearth the defiant truth
Naoise Dolan, The Irish Times
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Clever, ambitious, and richly researched. A slice of 1890s Paris that makes us see that our modern problems aren’t so modern after all! The Paris Express is a smartly structured novel that ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the doomed train itself
Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam
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Captivating! Emma Donoghue writes in rich, luxuriant detail, yet the story moves at a exhilarating clip. An edge-of-your-seat historical thriller that I couldn’t put down
Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
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Wonderful. In exploring a little-remembered event in history, she manages to hold a mirror up to a whole society. An absorbing, panoramic, meticulously researched, lovingly peopled gem
Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black
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Donoghue's talents are at such glorious heights in this novel
Heather O'Neill, author of The Capital of Dreams
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You’ll find plenty of intimacy but few displays of party manners among the passengers Donoghue introduces in The Paris Express . . . As the train speeds toward the capital, vignettes in the various carriages provide a tension-filled panorama of fin-de-siècle French society
Alida Becker, The New York Times
User Reviews
Book 4.0
Narration 4.0
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4.0 4.0
This was far more interesting than I thought it would be after the first chapter. If you're one of those people (like me) who enjoys people-watching on public transport, then you'll enjoy this. Loads of observations of the passengers, as well as the build up to the crash. At one point, I wasn't sure if it was actually going to end with a crash, or a far more dramatic end. All in all, an interesting listen.
ClareR 2025-06-17
Details
- Author
- Emma Donoghue
- Narrator
- Justin Avoth
- Duration
- 7 hours 15 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 March 2025
- ISBN
- 9781035057283
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Genre
- Historical crime and mysteries, Historical fiction, Thriller / suspense fiction
- Rating
- 4.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 4.0(1 review)
Synopsis
In this riveting historical thriller, a deadly plot unfolds aboard a train hurtling towards Paris. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Room, Emma Donoghue takes you on a heart-pounding ride in The Paris Express.'Ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the train itself' – Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam'Riveting' – The Washington Post'All about speed . . . this novel is a masterclass' – The IndependentParis, 1895. Glamour hides a city on the brink. One morning, a young woman boards the Granville express with a deadly plan.On the journey lives intertwine in explosive ways. There are the railway crew who have everything to lose, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an elderly statesman with his fragile wife and a lonely artist far from home.The train speeds towards the City of Light and into a future that will change everything . . .'An edge-of-your-seat historical thriller that I couldn't put down' – Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
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