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The year is 1953 and Zephyrette, Jill McLeod, loves her job on the California Zephyr. She is not only the hostess on the train but also the nurse. If a passenger gets hurts Jill is called in with her medical kit. These were the days of tablecloths on the dining car tables, breakfasts cooked to order and, at least for sleeping car passengers, an air of relative luxury. Working as a Zephyrette is perfect for Jill. Her fiancé was killed during the war and she was left sad and lonely. But the train journeys provide both distraction and employment.
Lots of passengers are heading to California and its many stops along the way. Jill has no problem remembering all the passengers and their children as they arrive on the train. She even remembers what car they're sleeping in and what will be served in the dining car that day.
It's also up to Jill to be a guide. Every so often she makes announcements telling the passengers the history of every place the train passes. People ask her how she remembers everything but Jill has had this job for a few years and loves history so it's no problem to answer questions about the states the Zephyr passes through.
So far this run has been very pleasant. The only problem she's concerned about is when she discovers her uncle, a retired detective, and cousin are on the train. The father and son don't get along. In fact they have no idea that the other is on the train until Jill tells them.
If this was the only problem on the train Jill would have been happy. But one night a porter awakens her and tells her that she and her medical kit are needed in one of the cars. She quickly dresses and goes to the injured passenger. There's nothing in her medical kit that can help the passenger because he was shot and within minutes dies.
Why was this man killed? Maybe it was because he was running some shady business with his traveling partner, or maybe he was cheating at his nightly poker games, or maybe it was because he tended to get drunk and alienated some of the passengers and crew. In any case, Jill and her uncle, the ex-detective, have to investigate the death and find the killer. But things take a bad turn when they find out a few passengers have guns and Jill's cousin, who had an argument with the dead passenger the previous day, has one as well. There are quite a few suspects riding the train.
Jill and her uncle go from passenger to passenger trying to figure out where they were when the murder happened. The victim's travelling partner even accuses the retired detective of the murder because of the history he and the victim shared. But many of the passengers had a problem with the victim and almost all of those had some kind of run-in with him during the trip.
Someone killed the unfriendly, obnoxious man and Jill is a little worried that it might be someone she knows well.
DEATH DEALS A HAND is filled with ample helpings of the history of the California Zephyr and the states it ran through. For the first 150 pages or so the reader learns a lot about the train and Colorado and its many famous places. We also meet quite a few passengers who get on and off the train.
Dawson provides rich detail about the many different passengers and does it in such a way that the reader does not get confused. I had no problem remembering who was who and the character's history. But the reader had better like history because the murder doesn't occur until the last third of the book. When it does finally happen the pace picks up quite a bit as Jill and her uncle investigate.
DEATH DEALS A HAND might not be the most entertaining of books for a murder mystery enthusiast but I found it interesting and enjoyable. So take a trip back to 1953 and travel the California Zephyr at a time when the porters were subject to blatant racism, people still remembered prohibition, and riding the train was still considered romantic, in part because it was.
§ Sharon Katz has been reviewing books for RTE for many years. She lives in Brooklyn.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, February 2016
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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