Audiobook Review: The Case of the Body on the Orient Express by Kelly Oliver

The Case of the Body on the Orient Express
Author: Kelly Oliver
Narrator: Penelope Rawlins
Series: The Detection Club (Book 2)
Publication: Boldwood Books (July 14, 2025)
Length: 8 hours and 19 minutes

Description: Don't miss the next installment in Kelly Oliver's brilliantly addictive Detection Club cozy mystery series!

Paris, 1928: Agatha Christie and fellow writer Dorothy L Sayers board the Orient Express, bound for Constantinople. Christie in particular is looking forward to a break from recent dispiriting events in both her work and private life – the finalisation of her divorce from her philanderous husband Archie, and the miserly reception of her latest book.

But before the duo can settle in to enjoy the luxuries of their first-class journey, their journey is derailed when a fellow guest drops dead during the dinner service. And as the last person to speak to the victim, Dorothy finds herself a prime suspect in his murder.

As the train hurtles East, Sayers’ resourceful assistant Eliza and her friend Theo must navigate a maze of suspects. But with each passing mile, the stakes rise, and when another body is discovered, their search to find the killer before they reach their destination becomes increasingly complicated.

Can Eliza and Theo stay one step ahead, crack the mystery and clear Dorothy’s name? Or will this be one journey too far for the amateur sleuths?

My Thoughts: The second Detection Club mystery takes place on the Orient Express. Eliza is accompanying her boss Dorothy L. Sayers as she heads to a writer's conference in Istanbul. Agatha Christie is along heading for an archaeological expedition in Ur. Theo is on the train too. He's working as a waiter in order to get to the writer's conference.

When one of the passengers who once had an encounter with Dorothy dies of poison during dinner service, Eliza decides to look into the death to make sure to clear Dorothy's name. She needs Theo's help to get access to areas passengers don't visit. 

Eliza and Theo discover that quite a few people want the man dead but have their main suspect eliminated when someone murders him too. They find themselves in the middle of a criminal enterprise and a potential espionage case as they learn more about the victims. 

This was an entertaining historical mystery.

I bought this one June 14, 2026. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

The Astral Library
Author: Kate Quinn

Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: William Morrow (February 17, 2026)

Time: 9 hours and 15 minutes

Description: From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.

Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.

The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?

My Thoughts: THE ASTRAL LIBRARY is a book for book lovers. Alex Watson is a former foster child barely hanging on. She's working at three part-time jobs and living off-the-books at a friend's apartment. When her debit card is declined and she can't resolve things, she heads to the reading room at the Boston Public Library to think about her life. She stumbles through a door she hasn't seen before and meets the Librarian who offers to let her move to her favorite book. 

Books are the things that saved Alix. She could always escape into her favorite fantasy worlds when life got too hard. Her only keepsakes from a youth spent in foster care are her battered copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and a bumper sticker her mother left behind saying "They got the Library of Alexandria--They're not getting mine."

But things don't go smoothly for Alix. She finds herself helping the Librarian when she learns that others who have found homes in books are in trouble. She becomes an assistant - a library page - and finds herself traveling from Sherlock Holmes to The Great Gatsby to the worlds of Jane Austen trying to keep the travelers safe.

When the Librarian is injured, it becomes Alix's responsibility to protect the library from Library Board who is determined to modernize and monetize the library. Alix isn't quite alone in her task. She has a friend whose business is making fashion and who specializes in historically accurate period costumes. But Beau has issues of his own including an up-coming loan payment to his father who helped him start his business and a very detailed gown for a movie premiere that his needs to finish. 

This was a wonderful story for all readers because who hasn't fantasized about living inside a favorite book. I enjoyed it very much.

I bought this one July 8 for $2.99 and used an Audible Credit for the audiobook August 30. You can buy your copy here.