Obelists En Route

The discovery of a corpse turns a cross-country train journey into a closed-circle hunt for a killer.

The magnificent Transcontinental Express, showcasing the cutting edge of mid-1930s luxury train travel, is making its first trip from New York to San Francisco. For its record-breaking maiden voyage—coast to coast in three days with no passenger stops—the express carries only invited guests, among them renowned businessmen, physicians, psychologists and even a high-ranking member of the NYPD.

Among refined staterooms, an elegant dining car and a “recreation room” for bridge, ping-pong and dancing, the vehicle’s most lauded feature is the swimming pool car—which is precisely where the waterlogged corpse of a prominent banker is discovered just one day into the journey. Uncertain of the cause of death and fearing negative publicity, the conductor drives on for the West Coast, charging a select group of passengers, including the sharp-witted Dr. Pons, with the task of uncovering what has occurred—even as every new piece of evidence seems to suggest more perplexing possibilities.

Hopelessly rare in first edition and never before published in the United States, Obelists en Route is a brilliantly complex Golden Age mystery from one of the greatest American authors of the period. Besides its intriguing whodunit plot, the book’s period detail and locomotive setting make it a welcome rediscovery today.