Vultures in the Sky

October 19, 2020
First published in 1935, this expertly crafted mystery from Downing (1902–1974) focuses on nine passengers aboard a train from Monterrey, Mexico, to Mexico City. The news of an impending rail strike and conjecture about a recent kidnapping case, in which a young boy died, are their main topics of conversation shortly before a man dies mysteriously while the train is passing through a tunnel. Another traveler is later found dead in her ransacked compartment. U.S. customs agent Hugh Rennert takes charge and declares: “I think the time has come for all of us to put aside our circumlocutions and acknowledge openly the fact that one of us in this car is a murderer.” Everyone is hiding something, and everyone is afraid of being exposed. The evocative descriptions of the characters and the Mexican landscape, as well as the creeping claustrophobia and fear that imbue the atmosphere on the train, keep tension high. Clues are fairly displayed amid the many well-developed red herrings. This is another winning entry in the American Mystery Classics series.