Mayhem at the Orient Express - Not Agatha Christie

As a huge Agatha Christie fan, this book title hooked me immediately. Kylie Logan's Mayhem at the Orient Express takes place in Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie. New B&B owner Bea Cartwright, winery owner Kate Wilder and aging hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey are ordered to form a book club known as the League of Literary Ladies by a local judge. They cannot get along and have been in court numerous times to the dismay of local magistrate Alvin Littlejohn.

At their first meeting they are joined by Luella Zak and they decide to read Murder on the Orient Express. When the discussion ends, they decide to walk to The Orient Express, a new Chinese in town to order everyone's favorite orange/peanut chicken. What they discover is Peter Chan, the owner, dead on the floor with a knife through his heart.

After speaking with the police, the Literary Ladies wind up back at the B&B as a snowstorm brews outside. Bea's first guest has arrived and another stranger appears out of the storm asking for a room. With the power out at most of the homes and businesses on the island and the ferries not running, the League of Literary Ladies holds up in the B&B tickled to be living through a real life murder mystery. More guests arrive and before too long their numbers parallel

those on the famous train.

Snowbound like the passengers on the Orient Express train, are the ladies in the company of a murderer? These use their wits and emulate Hercule Poirot's "little grey cells" to solve the mystery.

I enjoyed this book, mostly because of the witty play on the original book by Agatha Christie, but also the characters are funny and realistically written. This is the first in the series and I am looking forward to the other books.