Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect uses characterization, setting, plot, and metafictional elements to satirize literary culture and the egos of authors. The book’s very premise pokes fun at the overinflated self-image of publishing, as the Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival celebrates itself by booking its 50th anniversary gathering aboard the luxurious Ghan. It’s a trip that relatively few fans can afford, but the sparse attendance seems less important than the prestige of such a setting. Most of the authors, agents, and publishers among the novel’s characters are portrayed as at least egocentric and callous. Both Simone and Wyatt break laws, extort others, and take advantage of their own authors to make money and further their careers. Ernie is actually somewhat frightened of Simone, and he comments that he supposes he “should be grateful she’s on [his] side” (14). The writers are all hyperconscious of their relative statuses; they know one another’s sales figures, read one another’s reviews, and keep track of one another’s awards. Several of them take advantage of any opportunity to bolster their own prestige by putting down a fellow author: Their comically extreme backbiting and sniping is even more obvious when