Climb aboard the The Train to Christmas Town, a train ride expertly designed to bring the spirit of Christmas to life for another year. Bringing the whole family together for a special ride to remember, experience festive fun with fabulous characters and interactive entertainment.

The setting is somewhat less exotic than the Orient Express - here it's the sleeper train from London to Fort William - but there's the same opportunity for a tight band of suspects and there's the convenience of a train that gets derailed in a snowstorm, isolating the suspects and the detective - in this case a newly retired Met detective inspector, heading up to Scotland because her daughter's about to give birth. An engrossing and heart-warming mystery. Like a glorious Christmas chocolate – beautiful on the outside with a richly dark centre. Perfect to curl up with on cold winter nights’ MARION TODD Our journey will continue from Gloucester towards Cardiff along the banks of the river Severn through Lydney and Chepstow as we head for Wales via Newport. The Cardiff Christmas Market is located in the heart of the city along the pedestrianised streets of the main shopping area. Enjoy the atmosphere of the market with its craft stalls, food and drink outlets and fairy lights to add to the festive feel.The light-hearted tone, cheerful banter, festive puzzles and the cover all suggest a Christmassy comfort read and the frequently darker content completely jars with that feel. The content simply doesn't match the tone. All aboard a cozy murder mystery on the Christmas Express. Think Agatha Christie meets anagrams, hidden word searches, a recipe and a pub quiz. It’s the perfect mysterious festive read. I lived with this - it was never hugely intrusive, but the thing that finalised my mixed feelings about the book was the ending. There's an interesting twist at the end - but the reaction to that twist is to totally lose any sense of justice being done. It just felt wrong.

When I started this novel, I expected a nice Christmas cozy with all the trimmings but this is definitely not that. First, the only connection to Christmas is the time of year but it hardly factors into the story. Second, it was a long and sometimes draggy ride to the first murder which doesn’t occur until about a third of the way into the story. And there is nothing cozy here. This is a very dark tale with several references to rape, sexual, emotional and physical assaults as well as descriptions of a high risk pregnancy. My other issue with the book is that none of the characters come across as particularly likeable; they don't really develop any kind of personality other than long descriptions of what they're doing or obsessing about. This isn't helped by unnecessarily long descriptions of how a character uses his vape pen, or eats a sweet. In the first part of the book, the detective, Roz, is trying to get to Scotland to be with her daughter who has gone into labour. Roz feels that she's failing her daughter by not being there. We know this because we're told it over and over again. Roz has made a traditional Scottish sweet to take with her. We hear about this sweet endlessly while Roz is waiting for the train, how it tastes, how long it lasts, how she should have sent some to her daughter in the post. One thing that always features in my Christmas reading is a mystery - whether it's revisiting M. R. James ghost stories for the nth time, or a Christmas-themed murder mystery. This book certainly fits the bill with its deliberate reference to Agatha Christie's title, and Christmas thrown in. Join us at The Polar Express Yorkshire for a magical Christmas Experience. We are the ONLY licensed Polar Express in Yorkshire. This Christmas experience is unlike any other. Brought to you by the organisers of the number 1 voted Polar Express in the World, Wensleydale Railway hosts The Polar Express Yorkshire new for 2019. For example, there are some strained similes - there's a midwife 'whose low, reassuring tones flowed like the warm water that filled a birthing pool'. Like many real passengers, Roz notices the glimpsed lives of people as the train passes their houses, but as she 'became aware of thousands of parallel lives', she feels that 'Like every small part of the train, each life was integral. Essential.' Really? This observation is then extended to wildly misunderstand Schrödinger's cat with the thought that 'Each box of a window with its blinds or curtains could contain an atrocity. Schrödinger's casement.'

THE POLAR EXPRESS™ 2023 Train Ride

Christmas Express is the great family board game for those that believe in Santa, and those that wish they still did.

The Midlands Polar Express Ride –We encourage our guests, young and old to wear pyjamas just as in the book with a dressing gown for good measure also. Children love it and if you can persuade our older guests, Mums, Dads, Granny and Grandpa to also join in, the atmosphere in the train comes alive for a truly magical experience! The box contains a large colourful playing board, 8 player tokens, 4 stands, 51 numbered cards, 14 speciality cards and a full set of rules And it’s a shame, because the story itself really isn’t bad. It just has nothing to do with Christmas, reads nothing like the summary implies it will in tone, content, or theme, and has the potential to be a nasty surprise for readers who are sensitive to this type of material.

Categories

Make lots of mistakes, Rosalind. Make them frequently. And do not give up who you are to be someone else, or someone you think you should be. It never works. Find your strengths and use them. You have many. No one can figure things out like you can. No one stands up for victims like you do.” I say this in a somewhat jesting way, but I mean this warning with seriousness. What is presented here in the title, the cover art, and the publisher’s summary is a fun holiday mystery. In actuality, this is a very upsetting book about the devastating effects of sexual assault and rape on survivors and includes multiple graphic and unsettling first person accounts of rape, as well as a lot of horror show pregnancy and delivery content as well that I would absolutely not recommend reading while pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant.