Obelists En Route

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.