The Sleeping Car Murders

A darkly funny French noir mystery set after a fatal journey on the night train from Marseille to Paris, from the award-winning author of A Very Long Engagement.

“A strongly plotted story of murder with a clever ironical ending...Remarkable.” —Telegraph

As the night train pulls in to Paris from Marseille, a beautiful young woman is found dead in her carriage: 30-year-old saleswoman Georgette Thomas.

The task of finding the culprit is handed down the ranks of the police force to overworked, crime-weary detective Pierre 'Grazzi' Grazziano, who has little interest in playing cat-and-mouse with a diabolically cunning, savage murderer. As Grazzi begrudgingly begins piecing together Georgette Thomas’s life—her job, family, lovers, and what happened in the mysterious sleeping car—he realizes this case is far more than it seems.

There were 6 berths in the sleeping car, and over the next few days, more of the sleeping car passengers are found dead across Paris. With corpses turning up everywhere, the question becomes not only who is the killer, but who will be their next victim…

Deftly taut with morbid humor, The Sleeping Car Murders is a breakneck noir mystery full of lust, deception and death. Sébastien Japrisot has been called “the Graham Greene of France,” and is best known for his novel, A Very Long Engagement, which was an international bestseller, won the Prix Interallié, and was later also made into a film starring Audrey Tatou and Jodie Foster in 2004.