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Darian Richards #3
The Train Rider
One man pushed Darian Richards to the edge. The man he couldn't catch. The Train Rider.
As Victoria's top homicide investigator, Darian Richards spent years catching killers. The crimes of passion, of anger, of revenge ... they were easy. It was the monsters who were hard.
Someone was taking girls. At first he'd keep them a week then give them back. Darian warned that wouldn’t last. It didn’t. From then on, their bodies were never found. Girls kept disappearing. All they had in common was the fact they’d last been seen on a train.
The ever-rising list of the vanished broke Darian. Forced him to walk away. Now, retired, watching the Noosa River flow by, the nightmares had finally stopped. Darian was never going back.
Then three girls go missing from Queensland trains. Darian knows that the killer is playing him. He has a choice to make. But when the decision means a girl will die, there is no choice. He has to stop this man once and for all. Forever.
As Victoria's top homicide investigator, Darian Richards spent years catching killers. The crimes of passion, of anger, of revenge ... they were easy. It was the monsters who were hard.
Someone was taking girls. At first he'd keep them a week then give them back. Darian warned that wouldn’t last. It didn’t. From then on, their bodies were never found. Girls kept disappearing. All they had in common was the fact they’d last been seen on a train.
The ever-rising list of the vanished broke Darian. Forced him to walk away. Now, retired, watching the Noosa River flow by, the nightmares had finally stopped. Darian was never going back.
Then three girls go missing from Queensland trains. Darian knows that the killer is playing him. He has a choice to make. But when the decision means a girl will die, there is no choice. He has to stop this man once and for all. Forever.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2014
5 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Tony Cavanaugh
7 books39 followersTony Cavanaugh is an Australian crime novelist, screenwriter and film and television producer. He has over thirty years' experience in the film industry, has lectured at several prestigious universities and has been a regular guest on radio commenting on the film and television industry. His Darian Richards novels which include PROMISE, DEAD GIRL SING and THE TRAIN RIDER, have been highly praised.
For more information about Tony Cavanaugh visit his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tonycavanaug...) or follow him on Twitter (@TonyCavanaugh1)
For more information about Tony Cavanaugh visit his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tonycavanaug...) or follow him on Twitter (@TonyCavanaugh1)
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 16, 2014
He’s back. The man, the murderer, who forced Melbourne’s best homicide detective off the force and into the quiet serenity of Noosa in Queensland. The Train Rider abducts girls from train carriages – in the beginning he raped and tortured them, then dressed them in the rags of his previous victims and abandoned them in parking garages for the police to find. And then he stopped giving the girls back; they just started disappearing, dead and buried somewhere unknown.
Melbourne’s top cop, Darian Richards pursued the Train Rider for years, with no success. Until he finally threw in the towel – turned his back on the case and the force.
But now he’s back, having followed Darian to Queensland. Girls have started going missing, from trains. And Darian gets a visit from the local priest who says he’s heard a murderer’s confession.
The Train Rider is back – and he wants Darian to play.
‘The Train Rider’ is the third book in Tony Cavanaugh’s ‘Darian Richards’ crime series.
I really, truly hope this isn’t the last Darian Richards book in Tony Cavanaugh’s gripping-gruesome crime series. Since first book ‘Promise’, when we first met Darian and learnt that he was plagued by his failure to find the Train Rider serial killer operating out of Melbourne, this third book has been the pinnacle of the series. The one in which Darian is forced to once again confront the one that got away.
There is a lot in this book that sets up a longer-haul for Darian. Like his reconnecting with escort-turned-love-interest, Rose, who Darian used as bait to catch serial killer Winston Promise and whom he finally apologises to and woos back in ‘The Train Rider’. Darian, a self-proclaimed loner with a disastrous romantic track-record peppered mainly with prostitutes, lays his heart on his sleeve for Rose and raises the stakes for himself by making an emotional promise to her that’s linked to finding the elusive Train Rider.
Then there’s his erstwhile ‘partner’, local policewoman Maria who helped Darian on his last two forays back into the world of homicide and who is dating his only friend, Casey, a 50-something retired criminal also living in the secluded North. Maria has been a focus in the series since reluctantly partnering with Darian and having her moral fibre come under scrutiny for helping in his vigilante justice campaigns. But she’s a tricky character in herself – and I would like to spend more time with her in the series. In ‘The Train Rider’ she’s lured into Darian’s “game” with the serial killer, and she’s experiencing serious doubts about her unlikely relationship with Casey, while also wondering if there is something to Darian’s own form of justice.
There are plenty of loose ends and open-ended relationships in ‘The Train Rider’ that I hope means this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Darian Richards. The Dashiell Hammett-type cop who spouts deeply cynical zingers like;
Nostalgia for me is like God: of no use.
It’s also wonderful that in this book Darian returns to his old Melbourne stomping ground. This setting is particularly fruitful for Cavanaugh’s noir-ish observations;
Melbourne was a city of murder. That was the only way I could see it as the night pushed down on me.
It was so great to be back.
I also hope this isn’t the last we see of Darian for Maria’s sake. In this book in particular she’s given even more of a murky moral compass, and I can really see her holding her own if more books are planned. She has a really keen eye and a disgruntled spirit that I think has a lot more to offer this series;
… male cops tended to follow the laws of being a tough guy set out by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in the middle of a canyon, on a horse, in the 1850s. Somehow that image, from countless movies, set the role for cops in Queensland – all over the country, really – in the second decade of the twentieth century. In fact, for as long as she could remember. Maybe, she thought, the solo warrior with a rifle by his side and a horse below him, bathed in a harsh sun and squinting at dangers far away, was the image to aspire to for men in general.
Like with the other books in the ‘Darian Richards’ series, we’re given a first-person narrative glimpse into the serial killer’s mind. It’s depraved, as usual. As is the grotesque murder-spree the Train Rider conducts. But one thing I thought was missing from ‘The Train Rider’ was mention of a serious ethical over-step Darian mentioned back in first book ‘Promise’. Part of the reason he retired from the force and turned his back on the Train Rider investigation in Melbourne was a broken promise he made to one of the victim’s mothers … who he then had a very close romantic encounter with. I remembered that little factoid about Darian (enough to make mention of it in my review at the time) and thought that the Train Rider’s reappearance in Darian’s new Queensland life would surely bring this indiscretion, and the woman, back to the fore. But she’s never mentioned and I found that to be an odd omission.
This is a series full of machismo – and even while Darian chastises the redneck Queensland police officers he comes into contact with (particularly over their sexist treatment of Maria and women in general), Cavanaugh has written the two main women in Darian’s life with a misogynistic eye. Rose and Maria are young (20-something) bombshells with tiny waists, long legs and big boobs. Rose was the escort Darian started to fall for over a year of Tuesday meetings, and in the ultimate far-fetched daydream, Rose started to fall for Darian in return. She walks around like a middle-aged man’s wet-dream come to life: in Black Sabbath tank and white short-shorts.
And since Maria helped find serial killer Winston Promise in a previous book she’s been given the nickname ‘Glamour Cop’ by her colleagues and her live-in partner, Casey, jokes that Playboy will come calling with the hopes that she’ll pose with a Glock between her breasts. Darian’s tech-man Isosceles has a serious Raquel Welch obsession, and for Maria’s resemblance he has developed a puppy-love crush on her.
I actually found Rose to be quite boring – she really does read like a cardboard cut-out male fantasy and even with serious trauma now in her past (thanks to Darian) she’s nothing more than a vessel for his ardour, rather than an actual human-being. Maria, on the other hand, I find fascinating. She doesn’t seem to pay much attention to what she looks like, regardless of how much Darian and Isosceles make of her appearance. Rather, Maria has real conflict as a straight-laced cop who is becoming somewhat seduced by Darian’s vigilante justice.
Then there are the other women Cavanaugh portrays – the victims. As they’ve been in the past two books, in ‘The Train Rider’ they are once again young and beautiful girls falling prey to the sick machinations of a serial killer. At one point in flashback to the Melbourne Train Rider case, one of Darian’s officers on the taskforce observes that the only thing connecting all these victims is their attractive appearance, to which Isosceles quips; “Well, he’s not going to take an ugly one.” Even the female victims in this series are treated like pretty props for male fantasy.
I do enjoy this series, testosterone-fuelled it may be and with a problem in its portrayal of women. But I like Darian, and I’m fascinated by Maria. In this third book I can see real longevity for the series, and I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t be long before I can read another complex case headed by Darian Richards.
4/5
Melbourne’s top cop, Darian Richards pursued the Train Rider for years, with no success. Until he finally threw in the towel – turned his back on the case and the force.
But now he’s back, having followed Darian to Queensland. Girls have started going missing, from trains. And Darian gets a visit from the local priest who says he’s heard a murderer’s confession.
The Train Rider is back – and he wants Darian to play.
‘The Train Rider’ is the third book in Tony Cavanaugh’s ‘Darian Richards’ crime series.
I really, truly hope this isn’t the last Darian Richards book in Tony Cavanaugh’s gripping-gruesome crime series. Since first book ‘Promise’, when we first met Darian and learnt that he was plagued by his failure to find the Train Rider serial killer operating out of Melbourne, this third book has been the pinnacle of the series. The one in which Darian is forced to once again confront the one that got away.
There is a lot in this book that sets up a longer-haul for Darian. Like his reconnecting with escort-turned-love-interest, Rose, who Darian used as bait to catch serial killer Winston Promise and whom he finally apologises to and woos back in ‘The Train Rider’. Darian, a self-proclaimed loner with a disastrous romantic track-record peppered mainly with prostitutes, lays his heart on his sleeve for Rose and raises the stakes for himself by making an emotional promise to her that’s linked to finding the elusive Train Rider.
Then there’s his erstwhile ‘partner’, local policewoman Maria who helped Darian on his last two forays back into the world of homicide and who is dating his only friend, Casey, a 50-something retired criminal also living in the secluded North. Maria has been a focus in the series since reluctantly partnering with Darian and having her moral fibre come under scrutiny for helping in his vigilante justice campaigns. But she’s a tricky character in herself – and I would like to spend more time with her in the series. In ‘The Train Rider’ she’s lured into Darian’s “game” with the serial killer, and she’s experiencing serious doubts about her unlikely relationship with Casey, while also wondering if there is something to Darian’s own form of justice.
There are plenty of loose ends and open-ended relationships in ‘The Train Rider’ that I hope means this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Darian Richards. The Dashiell Hammett-type cop who spouts deeply cynical zingers like;
Nostalgia for me is like God: of no use.
It’s also wonderful that in this book Darian returns to his old Melbourne stomping ground. This setting is particularly fruitful for Cavanaugh’s noir-ish observations;
Melbourne was a city of murder. That was the only way I could see it as the night pushed down on me.
It was so great to be back.
I also hope this isn’t the last we see of Darian for Maria’s sake. In this book in particular she’s given even more of a murky moral compass, and I can really see her holding her own if more books are planned. She has a really keen eye and a disgruntled spirit that I think has a lot more to offer this series;
… male cops tended to follow the laws of being a tough guy set out by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in the middle of a canyon, on a horse, in the 1850s. Somehow that image, from countless movies, set the role for cops in Queensland – all over the country, really – in the second decade of the twentieth century. In fact, for as long as she could remember. Maybe, she thought, the solo warrior with a rifle by his side and a horse below him, bathed in a harsh sun and squinting at dangers far away, was the image to aspire to for men in general.
Like with the other books in the ‘Darian Richards’ series, we’re given a first-person narrative glimpse into the serial killer’s mind. It’s depraved, as usual. As is the grotesque murder-spree the Train Rider conducts. But one thing I thought was missing from ‘The Train Rider’ was mention of a serious ethical over-step Darian mentioned back in first book ‘Promise’. Part of the reason he retired from the force and turned his back on the Train Rider investigation in Melbourne was a broken promise he made to one of the victim’s mothers … who he then had a very close romantic encounter with. I remembered that little factoid about Darian (enough to make mention of it in my review at the time) and thought that the Train Rider’s reappearance in Darian’s new Queensland life would surely bring this indiscretion, and the woman, back to the fore. But she’s never mentioned and I found that to be an odd omission.
This is a series full of machismo – and even while Darian chastises the redneck Queensland police officers he comes into contact with (particularly over their sexist treatment of Maria and women in general), Cavanaugh has written the two main women in Darian’s life with a misogynistic eye. Rose and Maria are young (20-something) bombshells with tiny waists, long legs and big boobs. Rose was the escort Darian started to fall for over a year of Tuesday meetings, and in the ultimate far-fetched daydream, Rose started to fall for Darian in return. She walks around like a middle-aged man’s wet-dream come to life: in Black Sabbath tank and white short-shorts.
And since Maria helped find serial killer Winston Promise in a previous book she’s been given the nickname ‘Glamour Cop’ by her colleagues and her live-in partner, Casey, jokes that Playboy will come calling with the hopes that she’ll pose with a Glock between her breasts. Darian’s tech-man Isosceles has a serious Raquel Welch obsession, and for Maria’s resemblance he has developed a puppy-love crush on her.
I actually found Rose to be quite boring – she really does read like a cardboard cut-out male fantasy and even with serious trauma now in her past (thanks to Darian) she’s nothing more than a vessel for his ardour, rather than an actual human-being. Maria, on the other hand, I find fascinating. She doesn’t seem to pay much attention to what she looks like, regardless of how much Darian and Isosceles make of her appearance. Rather, Maria has real conflict as a straight-laced cop who is becoming somewhat seduced by Darian’s vigilante justice.
Then there are the other women Cavanaugh portrays – the victims. As they’ve been in the past two books, in ‘The Train Rider’ they are once again young and beautiful girls falling prey to the sick machinations of a serial killer. At one point in flashback to the Melbourne Train Rider case, one of Darian’s officers on the taskforce observes that the only thing connecting all these victims is their attractive appearance, to which Isosceles quips; “Well, he’s not going to take an ugly one.” Even the female victims in this series are treated like pretty props for male fantasy.
I do enjoy this series, testosterone-fuelled it may be and with a problem in its portrayal of women. But I like Darian, and I’m fascinated by Maria. In this third book I can see real longevity for the series, and I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t be long before I can read another complex case headed by Darian Richards.
4/5
February 20, 2014
In preparation for the release of The Train Rider, I finally had the excuse I needed to read Promise and Dead Girl Sing. I devoured both crime thrillers in a single day and eagerly began the third installment from Tony Cavanaugh featuring ex homicide detective Darian Richards.
Darian Richards was once Melbourne's top homicide cop but he walked away at the pinnacle of his career, retiring to the Queensland coast. It wasn't the bullet to the head that broke him, but his inability to capture the man dubbed The Train Rider.
The first eight cases attributed the monster involved teenage girls abducted just after alighting a train, found days, sometimes weeks, later wandering the streets, dressed in the tattered clothes of the victim before them. They had been raped and tortured, but they were alive. But the ninth victim was never found, neither was the tenth, or the eleventh, or the twelfth...
In Promise and Dead Girl Sing, Darian reluctantly chose to come out of retirement, on his own terms, in order to stop a serial killer and a human trafficker respectively. In The Train Rider, young girls begin disappearing from the rail system. Richard's nemesis is in town and he wants to resume the cat and mouse game the pair began in Melbourne.
Darian is a paragon of machismo - brave, strong, smart and desirable with just enough pathos to invoke admiring, rather than pitying, sympathy. He is the man you would want on the case if your daughter went missing, cruising around town in his bright red 1964 Studebaker Champion Coupe with his rare Beretta 92 tucked into his belt, ably assisted by computer genius Isosceles. I probably shouldn't find him as appealing as I do, as in essence he is a vigilante, and yet I couldn't help but like him.
Cavanaugh presents a cynical view of policing where ego and politics makes a mockery of service. Corruption is rife, misogyny is rampant and law and justice rarely coincide. I know I should condemn Darian's penchant for operating well outside the law but frankly, sometimes the end justifies the means.
This series is characterised by chilling villains who prey on teenage girls. As a mother of two beautiful daughters I sometimes found it difficult to read the explicit torture visited on the victims. The ease with which the Train Rider is able to operate and elude police is terrifying and his end game is horrifying. I desperately wanted him, and those that enabled him, erased.
One flaw with the series is the depiction of the female characters, uniformly beautiful, bright and sensual. Rose, Darian's regular 'escort' turned girlfriend, is at least a decade younger than him, and looks even younger, 'Glamourcop' Maria uses her cleavage to dazzle Isosceles and the victims are all lithe and lissom young girls. In The Train Rider even the aged wife/lover/partner complicit in the killer's crimes is named Eve and insists she was once 'hot'.
By The Train Rider I was finding Maria a somewhat irritating character. Not only because of the repeated references to her looks but also because of her self righteousness. I do understand her moral and ethical struggle between Richard's particular brand of justice and her policing ideals, I just found I didn't much care after a while. The potential is there though to develop Maria into a strong and interesting character and I hope the author does.
The Train Rider is a gritty, dark and engrossing thriller. I had thought perhaps that this may have been the conclusion to Cavanaugh's series but it seems likely, given the ending, that we can expect more from books featuring Darian Richards. I hope so.
March 8, 2014
In the beginning there was a lot to like about this book - sympathetic burnt-out cop in search of a serial killer, suspenseful plot etc etc.
But as the story progressed I began to feel more an more uneasy with the detailed(very) descriptions of the sexual torture inflicted on teenage girls, victims of the serial killer. All on International Women's Day too.Is this nasty description really necessary? I don't think so.
I was totally unconvinced by the part played by the priest faced with his knowledge of the killer and his victims. His adherence to the seal of confession was just a gimmick (and I'm a former priest so I know something about these things)
As the story hurtled towards its conclusion and the bodies piled up I became less and less convinced. Dozens of freeze dried bodies of female teenagers? Too much to believe.
The ending, with the serial killer still at large seems to pave the way for a sequel.
I do hope not.
But as the story progressed I began to feel more an more uneasy with the detailed(very) descriptions of the sexual torture inflicted on teenage girls, victims of the serial killer. All on International Women's Day too.Is this nasty description really necessary? I don't think so.
I was totally unconvinced by the part played by the priest faced with his knowledge of the killer and his victims. His adherence to the seal of confession was just a gimmick (and I'm a former priest so I know something about these things)
As the story hurtled towards its conclusion and the bodies piled up I became less and less convinced. Dozens of freeze dried bodies of female teenagers? Too much to believe.
The ending, with the serial killer still at large seems to pave the way for a sequel.
I do hope not.
June 20, 2023
The Train Rider is book three in the Darian Richards series by Tony Cavenaugh. Victorian homicide investigator Darian Richards retired and moved to Queensland to heal from the stress of his last case. However, he was drawn back into the case when three girls went missing from Queensland trains. The readers of The Train Rider will continue to follow Darian Richards's investigation to discover what happens.
The Train Rider is an enjoyable book and the second book I have read in this series. I did engage with the story and the characters from the first page. I enjoy the setting of this book and how Tony Cavenaugh uses it to ensure that his readers enjoy the plot. I love Tony Cavenaugh's portrayal of his characters and how they intertwine with each other throughout this book. The Train Rider is well-written and researched by Tony Cavenaugh. I like Tony Cavenaugh's description of the settings of Train Rider, which allowed me to imagine being part of the book's plot.
The readers of The Train Rider will learn the problem law enforcement officers have when they can not close a case. Also, the readers of The Train Rider will learn about the vintage American car called the Studebaker.
I recommend this book.
The Train Rider is an enjoyable book and the second book I have read in this series. I did engage with the story and the characters from the first page. I enjoy the setting of this book and how Tony Cavenaugh uses it to ensure that his readers enjoy the plot. I love Tony Cavenaugh's portrayal of his characters and how they intertwine with each other throughout this book. The Train Rider is well-written and researched by Tony Cavenaugh. I like Tony Cavenaugh's description of the settings of Train Rider, which allowed me to imagine being part of the book's plot.
The readers of The Train Rider will learn the problem law enforcement officers have when they can not close a case. Also, the readers of The Train Rider will learn about the vintage American car called the Studebaker.
I recommend this book.
December 24, 2016
When I first started this series, I wasn’t sure whether I would continue since it was a bit grittier than the crime fiction I normally read. However this is the third in the series - I’ve been suckered in by the location of the stories - mostly the Sunshine Coast (the second was the Gold Coast and Stradbroke Island) - places that I am quite familiar with. I love the descriptions of the Noosa River - I have a location where I think Darian Richards’ house is (I’m probably wrong, but it certainly can’t be too far from where I’m imagining it), and next time I’m staying up at Noosaville, I’m going to go to Ricky’s River Bar and Restaurant and have a cocktail!
These places are so familiar to me - although I didn’t realise that Nambour’s past was in sugar cane. "Even though I’d been living half an hour’s drive away for two years, I’d never been to Nambour. Of course I got lost on the way and drove in from the wrong direction on the journey from Noosa. The town is inland, across the Bruce Highway, nestled in a valley and surrounded by hinterland mountain ranges. It’s not the kind of place you need to go to unless you’re nostalgic for the sugar cane industry. Nambour was the heart and base of sugar cane; that was its reason for being, but the cane farms were dying out. Soon after I first arrived on the Sunshine Coast and reconnected with Casey he wanted to take me to Nambour and show me, like a proud local, the tramline that still funds down part of the main street. Back in the 1920s the trams carried the cane from the nearby farms through the centre of town to the railway line. I declined the offer. There was another local tourist attraction that Rose and I had just driven past: the Big Pineapple. Built in the early 1970s, this monstrosity - a sixteen-metre upright pretend pineapple on the side of the road - even won an award for the best Queensland tourist attraction." I've been to the Big Pineapple several times when I was little!
"She was waiting for me next to Noosa’s very own monument to size, the Big Pelican, an ugly structure with a massive beak that sat in the grounds of the foreshore which ran along the river about half a k down the road from my house. This was the family spot in the local area. Gas barbecues and kids’ playgrounds, a small beach that ran along the river’s edge, a two-storey floating restaurant, tininess for hire, houseboats for hire, kayaks for hire, outdoor cafes and restaurants on the other side of the road, nestled in between apartment hotels and clothes shops. From here you can see directly across the river to the mouth of the ocean and the distant horizon where the sky meets the water." And I have been in this park and seen the Pelican many times, I’ve been to the floating restaurant (the Boathouse - lovely sunset views!) and been to the cafes and restaurants across the street!
Like Cavanaugh’s other books, I’m a little conflicted - love, love, love the location descriptions, not so much the fairly graphic descriptions of the depraved depths of the perpetrator’s mind and actions. 3.5★
These places are so familiar to me - although I didn’t realise that Nambour’s past was in sugar cane. "Even though I’d been living half an hour’s drive away for two years, I’d never been to Nambour. Of course I got lost on the way and drove in from the wrong direction on the journey from Noosa. The town is inland, across the Bruce Highway, nestled in a valley and surrounded by hinterland mountain ranges. It’s not the kind of place you need to go to unless you’re nostalgic for the sugar cane industry. Nambour was the heart and base of sugar cane; that was its reason for being, but the cane farms were dying out. Soon after I first arrived on the Sunshine Coast and reconnected with Casey he wanted to take me to Nambour and show me, like a proud local, the tramline that still funds down part of the main street. Back in the 1920s the trams carried the cane from the nearby farms through the centre of town to the railway line. I declined the offer. There was another local tourist attraction that Rose and I had just driven past: the Big Pineapple. Built in the early 1970s, this monstrosity - a sixteen-metre upright pretend pineapple on the side of the road - even won an award for the best Queensland tourist attraction." I've been to the Big Pineapple several times when I was little!
"She was waiting for me next to Noosa’s very own monument to size, the Big Pelican, an ugly structure with a massive beak that sat in the grounds of the foreshore which ran along the river about half a k down the road from my house. This was the family spot in the local area. Gas barbecues and kids’ playgrounds, a small beach that ran along the river’s edge, a two-storey floating restaurant, tininess for hire, houseboats for hire, kayaks for hire, outdoor cafes and restaurants on the other side of the road, nestled in between apartment hotels and clothes shops. From here you can see directly across the river to the mouth of the ocean and the distant horizon where the sky meets the water." And I have been in this park and seen the Pelican many times, I’ve been to the floating restaurant (the Boathouse - lovely sunset views!) and been to the cafes and restaurants across the street!
Like Cavanaugh’s other books, I’m a little conflicted - love, love, love the location descriptions, not so much the fairly graphic descriptions of the depraved depths of the perpetrator’s mind and actions. 3.5★
February 26, 2014
For years, Darian Richards worked Homicide in Melbourne. He had the best strike rate solving cases of any detective in the country. He became head of the Homicide decision at an unprecedented young age. But there was one killer that got to him, snuck into Darian’s head and left him groping for the vodka to quell the nightmares. In his dreams he saw the victims and he chased the killer through trains but he never caught him. Just like in real life. Darian resigned from the Victorian Police Force and retreated to Noosa where he was mostly retired.
But now he’s back. The Train Rider has returned and this time, he’s in Queensland. Has he followed Darian? Has Darian’s retreat brought him out of hiding, using his expert method to kidnap young girls from trains but in a different state? Darian only needs to visit one home of a missing young girl to know the truth. It’s him. He’s here, on the Sunshine Coast and this time, Darian is going to find him. And he’s not going to sit around and wait for the justice system to deal with him. Darian doesn’t work that way.
But the Train Rider is clever. He’s been able to cover his tracks, conceal his identity and take girls from under the noses of the police for years – and it seems that now is no different, even in a much smaller area, one that’s less busy. When three girls go missing at once, Darian knows that he’s being taunted. He’s being given a choice – choose which one will die. But that’s not a choice Darian is going to make. He’s already picked his victim…
And so he is back. The Train Rider, who has haunted Darian Richards for a long time, has followed him to Queensland and begun working his old methods, making young girls vanish from the train. There are no witnesses, nothing shows up on CCTV, there’s no struggle. The young girls simply disappear. In the beginning, in Melbourne, he returned them. Sometimes a week later, sometimes two, sometimes three. Alive. But then, as Darian suspected would happen, the victims stopped returning. The Train Rider had other uses for them and Darian knows that each girl in Queensland will face this same fate as the unfortunate ones in Melbourne if he doesn’t find him and stop him soon.
Darian is smart, he’s a skilled investigator and he’s almost always able to get his man so this criminal is interesting because he manages to continue to outwit Darian at pretty much every turn. Darian only really manages to learn what the Train Rider wants him to learn, small clues that will further taunt Darian and allow him to do just a little…but not enough. Sometimes I wonder how long Darian’s luck will hold, administering his own brand of justice, not being afraid to dispatch violent and depraved criminals to the next world. A catch like the Train Rider, someone who installs fear and panic and the general population would be a huge coup for a police force…
I find this book – well actually this series, often focuses on really fascinating moral debates surrounding justice and punishment and what is the best way to deal with the sort of psychopaths that become the focus of investigations like the one into the Train Rider . Darian is one side of the argument, the side for the aforementioned dispatching. Often Maria, the local police officer who has become his reluctant ‘partner’ on several investigations, is the other. She’s the one still in the force, she’s young, she’s still very idealistic. She believes in “the system” – she proves this in Dead Girl Sing when she rats out Darian’s whereabouts to the local Gold Coast police. He doesn’t approve of her lack of loyalty to him there and the two of them in this volume provide two opposing sides of a justice argument. It’s interesting how often I kind of find myself kind of agreeing with Darian, especially when it comes to paroling useless pieces of trash who immediately and often violently reoffend. The Train Rider references several recent cases and you could easily throw up arguments for a quiet bullet for the likes of Adrian Bayley or Steven Hunter earlier on in their ‘careers’. Is it ‘right’? No. Because where do you draw the line? Who makes these decisions? What happens if you have a bunch of people all doling out their own versions of this? But could I understand people like Darian wanting to do it? Yes. I found that I really, really could. In this book, Maria begins to slide. The investigation begins to affect her, it begins to get under her skin. She begins to blur the lines, just like Darian has been blurring them (often smudging them right out) for years and she has to process her feelings about that. Maria is the most palatable for me in this book – she became more real as she questioned herself and her actions, her thought processes and her feelings from everything on her relationship to methods of interrogation. For once she is more than Barbie Cop, the pretty one.
Once again we are treated to the view of the serial killer, which is a regular feature in this series and once again, it’s pretty much creepy as hell. What was even creepier was the method by which he was kidnapping these girls. I think that we all like to think that we have a chance to get away from someone. To run, to scream, to do something. Even if we fail, there was a chance. These girls? They had no chance, no will, no real ability to do anything except what they were told. And that was truly one of the most disturbing things I’ve read. It made me squirm as I was reading it – I felt claustrophobic, even though I wasn’t confined at all.
The Train Rider is another fabulous installment of this series. Each one of these books I’ve been unable to put down and I hope this isn’t the end of the road.
But now he’s back. The Train Rider has returned and this time, he’s in Queensland. Has he followed Darian? Has Darian’s retreat brought him out of hiding, using his expert method to kidnap young girls from trains but in a different state? Darian only needs to visit one home of a missing young girl to know the truth. It’s him. He’s here, on the Sunshine Coast and this time, Darian is going to find him. And he’s not going to sit around and wait for the justice system to deal with him. Darian doesn’t work that way.
But the Train Rider is clever. He’s been able to cover his tracks, conceal his identity and take girls from under the noses of the police for years – and it seems that now is no different, even in a much smaller area, one that’s less busy. When three girls go missing at once, Darian knows that he’s being taunted. He’s being given a choice – choose which one will die. But that’s not a choice Darian is going to make. He’s already picked his victim…
And so he is back. The Train Rider, who has haunted Darian Richards for a long time, has followed him to Queensland and begun working his old methods, making young girls vanish from the train. There are no witnesses, nothing shows up on CCTV, there’s no struggle. The young girls simply disappear. In the beginning, in Melbourne, he returned them. Sometimes a week later, sometimes two, sometimes three. Alive. But then, as Darian suspected would happen, the victims stopped returning. The Train Rider had other uses for them and Darian knows that each girl in Queensland will face this same fate as the unfortunate ones in Melbourne if he doesn’t find him and stop him soon.
Darian is smart, he’s a skilled investigator and he’s almost always able to get his man so this criminal is interesting because he manages to continue to outwit Darian at pretty much every turn. Darian only really manages to learn what the Train Rider wants him to learn, small clues that will further taunt Darian and allow him to do just a little…but not enough. Sometimes I wonder how long Darian’s luck will hold, administering his own brand of justice, not being afraid to dispatch violent and depraved criminals to the next world. A catch like the Train Rider, someone who installs fear and panic and the general population would be a huge coup for a police force…
I find this book – well actually this series, often focuses on really fascinating moral debates surrounding justice and punishment and what is the best way to deal with the sort of psychopaths that become the focus of investigations like the one into the Train Rider . Darian is one side of the argument, the side for the aforementioned dispatching. Often Maria, the local police officer who has become his reluctant ‘partner’ on several investigations, is the other. She’s the one still in the force, she’s young, she’s still very idealistic. She believes in “the system” – she proves this in Dead Girl Sing when she rats out Darian’s whereabouts to the local Gold Coast police. He doesn’t approve of her lack of loyalty to him there and the two of them in this volume provide two opposing sides of a justice argument. It’s interesting how often I kind of find myself kind of agreeing with Darian, especially when it comes to paroling useless pieces of trash who immediately and often violently reoffend. The Train Rider references several recent cases and you could easily throw up arguments for a quiet bullet for the likes of Adrian Bayley or Steven Hunter earlier on in their ‘careers’. Is it ‘right’? No. Because where do you draw the line? Who makes these decisions? What happens if you have a bunch of people all doling out their own versions of this? But could I understand people like Darian wanting to do it? Yes. I found that I really, really could. In this book, Maria begins to slide. The investigation begins to affect her, it begins to get under her skin. She begins to blur the lines, just like Darian has been blurring them (often smudging them right out) for years and she has to process her feelings about that. Maria is the most palatable for me in this book – she became more real as she questioned herself and her actions, her thought processes and her feelings from everything on her relationship to methods of interrogation. For once she is more than Barbie Cop, the pretty one.
Once again we are treated to the view of the serial killer, which is a regular feature in this series and once again, it’s pretty much creepy as hell. What was even creepier was the method by which he was kidnapping these girls. I think that we all like to think that we have a chance to get away from someone. To run, to scream, to do something. Even if we fail, there was a chance. These girls? They had no chance, no will, no real ability to do anything except what they were told. And that was truly one of the most disturbing things I’ve read. It made me squirm as I was reading it – I felt claustrophobic, even though I wasn’t confined at all.
The Train Rider is another fabulous installment of this series. Each one of these books I’ve been unable to put down and I hope this isn’t the end of the road.
January 13, 2022
I thought this might be good summer reading and it was good enough to keep me to the end, although it got harder to stay with it the deeper into the book I read. If you like your detectives hard-boiled but with a soft centre, your women smoldering, the sex spectacular and the villains appalling, then this one might be for you. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the descriptions of place and the attempts to examine the complexity of life as a crime-solver, I got tired of the exposition and the unsatisfactory exploration of motive. Doubt that I'll take the hook which swings at the end of the book and spend any more time with Darian and his crew.
February 25, 2014
THE TRAIN RIDER is book three featuring Darian Richards - ex-cop, now vigilante walking a very fine line between right and wrong. He's also a violent, psychotic killer magnet.
In this case, THE TRAIN RIDER is the name of the book and the serial rapist and killer who Richards never caught. After a period of no activity, Richards is convinced that the killer is back, in Queensland as well, and playing games with him. Certainly as the violence ramps up, our killer declares himself clearly - its up to Richards alone to save the day.
Richards is a classic anti-hero. Prepared to kill if justice cannot prevail in any other way, he's very much a loner. With a best friend, a computer genius cohort, a love interest and a reluctant colleague he stomps his way through this case intent on getting this killer. Veering dangerously close to actually building a relationship with Rose (who made an appearance in the earlier books), he manages to drive her away again - this time not by using her as bait, but being around him means you get involved in things that most people don't need to know about. This time he manages to keep his best friend out of the mess, but his colleagues aren't so lucky. Albeit slightly less battered and bruised this time out.
If you haven't read the earlier books, THE TRAIN RIDER does spend a lot of time going back over past events, as well as the current thoughts of Richards on just about everything. Perhaps a little too much at times for those that did read the earlier instalments. That emphasis on the "justification / explanation / whys and wherefores" of what's going on in Richards mind was frequently heavy lifting.
This is also fiction that relies on the mad, bad, extremely violent psychopathic killer. You know the type - the ones that want to "talk" to the reader, that want everyone to know the minute details of what they do to their victims. Which given the inevitability of young woman victims, all got very tedious quite a few years ago. TRAIN RIDER makes no attempt whatsoever to explain the why's and spends a bit too much time concentrating on the what in rather gory detail. It's all become less "shocking" and more "staged" unfortunately.
Since the first book I've always maintained that Richards is a fantastic character. His flawed logic and justifications, his whatever it takes attitude, make him the sort of bloke that you'd like on your side, but perhaps not at your dinner table. In THE TRAIN RIDER he's still that bloke, but he's doing a lot to carry the day.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
In this case, THE TRAIN RIDER is the name of the book and the serial rapist and killer who Richards never caught. After a period of no activity, Richards is convinced that the killer is back, in Queensland as well, and playing games with him. Certainly as the violence ramps up, our killer declares himself clearly - its up to Richards alone to save the day.
Richards is a classic anti-hero. Prepared to kill if justice cannot prevail in any other way, he's very much a loner. With a best friend, a computer genius cohort, a love interest and a reluctant colleague he stomps his way through this case intent on getting this killer. Veering dangerously close to actually building a relationship with Rose (who made an appearance in the earlier books), he manages to drive her away again - this time not by using her as bait, but being around him means you get involved in things that most people don't need to know about. This time he manages to keep his best friend out of the mess, but his colleagues aren't so lucky. Albeit slightly less battered and bruised this time out.
If you haven't read the earlier books, THE TRAIN RIDER does spend a lot of time going back over past events, as well as the current thoughts of Richards on just about everything. Perhaps a little too much at times for those that did read the earlier instalments. That emphasis on the "justification / explanation / whys and wherefores" of what's going on in Richards mind was frequently heavy lifting.
This is also fiction that relies on the mad, bad, extremely violent psychopathic killer. You know the type - the ones that want to "talk" to the reader, that want everyone to know the minute details of what they do to their victims. Which given the inevitability of young woman victims, all got very tedious quite a few years ago. TRAIN RIDER makes no attempt whatsoever to explain the why's and spends a bit too much time concentrating on the what in rather gory detail. It's all become less "shocking" and more "staged" unfortunately.
Since the first book I've always maintained that Richards is a fantastic character. His flawed logic and justifications, his whatever it takes attitude, make him the sort of bloke that you'd like on your side, but perhaps not at your dinner table. In THE TRAIN RIDER he's still that bloke, but he's doing a lot to carry the day.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
July 12, 2015
I selected The Train Rider, the third book by Tony Cavanaugh to read as part of my book club, where we asked to read a book with the word “train” in the title. I knew I was going to be in for a white knuckled ride in the hands of Tony Cavanaugh. I have read and enjoyed his previous two titles, Promise and Dead Girl Sing. Overall, The Train Rider was a taut, psychological thriller but I really felt that Cavanaugh stepped up on a notch on the disturbing nature side of his killer. In this book, the focus is on capturing a serial killer named The Train Rider, who abducts young women that use trains as a mode of public transport. This killer is highly deranged, sending plenty of thrills and chills up the reader’s spine. Once he abducts his victims, he rapes, taunts them and then finally dumps their bodies. The Train Rider has evaded capture for a number of years from flawed former homicide detective Darian Richards, who featured in Cavanaugh’s previous two novels. In this book I liked how Cavanaugh chose to focus on delving deeper into the characterisation of his main character. With supporting cast of partner Maria, girlfriend Rose and technical aid Isosceles, each character added more depth to his character. As with the previous two novels, Cavanaugh definitely excels in his area of detective and police procedures, evident in the plot of the book. Cavanaugh also represents the deranged mind of the sick serial killer, The Train Rider, extremely well through his style of narrative. The ending of this book was the only let down for me, which I am hoping will be resolved by another instalment of Cavanaugh’s Darian Richards series.
February 4, 2014
3 1/2 stars
My View:
In this the 3rd novel in the Darian Richards series we learn a lot more about the person who is Darian – haunted by a murderer he could not catch, his present now embroiled in the residue of that evil that has followed him to his retirement by the river. The same killer strikes again and this time it is personal, Darian is his target. This is a great psychological thriller, the killer calmly plays a “catch me if you can” game with Darian, the stakes are high – the lives of innocent young girls and his relationship with Rose are at risk.
This is an engaging story with a voice that I found to be less intimidating than that of the villain in Promise, but don't be misled, the crimes committed by The Train Rider are as gruesome and as worrying as those in Promise but we are not privy to as much of the antagonist thoughts and so are spared some of the horror. This may make this easier reading for some.
A first rate psychological thriller, I look forward to the next chapter in this series.
My View:
In this the 3rd novel in the Darian Richards series we learn a lot more about the person who is Darian – haunted by a murderer he could not catch, his present now embroiled in the residue of that evil that has followed him to his retirement by the river. The same killer strikes again and this time it is personal, Darian is his target. This is a great psychological thriller, the killer calmly plays a “catch me if you can” game with Darian, the stakes are high – the lives of innocent young girls and his relationship with Rose are at risk.
This is an engaging story with a voice that I found to be less intimidating than that of the villain in Promise, but don't be misled, the crimes committed by The Train Rider are as gruesome and as worrying as those in Promise but we are not privy to as much of the antagonist thoughts and so are spared some of the horror. This may make this easier reading for some.
A first rate psychological thriller, I look forward to the next chapter in this series.
March 11, 2014
Across three novels now my enjoyment and criticism of Tony Cavanaugh's writing remains the same but my disappointment has deepened. The familiar locality of the story - Noosa, the Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay areas - is what keeps drawing me back and Darien continues to be an interesting protagonist. However, the crimes are still unnecessarily detailed and graphic and, while the first person perspective of the killer is less prominent here, it's still present and unwanted. There is a laziness to Cavanaugh's writing at times, best highlighted by his repetitive vocabularly choices and what can be very superficial description. Despite its flaws, I was still entertained, but what was most unfortunate about this story was that, after three novels haunted by The Train Rider, [SPOILER ALERT], Darien still receives no closure which felt like a real cheat.
January 9, 2015
This is clearly not a book by an American author, why you ask? Well for a start the writing was incredible, the story kept getter better and better as more of the retired detectives past leaked out while at the same time the main story remained interesting and suspense filled. This is not a thriller/ murder mystery for people with a weak stomach. The Train Rider is a nasty vile serial killer. The story is so expertly told, rather than the usual formula following books that usually fill this genre, I just wish the authors books were easier to obtain here in the United States, I had to get this one from Book Depository, a site tied with Amazon for obtaining great books not available in the United States.
April 16, 2015
I love Tony Cavanagh's books. His hero is tough and tortured, haunted by a killer he has not been able to capture, he retired from the police force and sought peace from his nightmares in sunny Queensland. But now he knows this killer has reared his head again and killed a series of girls. The link is the train. Darin will not stop until he finds the killer even at the risk of losing his partner and his peace.
Fast paced, gritty and raw. An author you must try if you like crime and thrillers.
Fast paced, gritty and raw. An author you must try if you like crime and thrillers.
September 13, 2015
As the 3rd book in this series it was good to finally hear more of the back story of ex-homicide inspector Darian Richards to understand him a little more.
I was a bit disappointed in the ending of this book where as the previous 2 books bought a bit more closure to the story this one didn't.
I have received book #4 as an ARC from The Reading Room & it was because of this that I went back & read book 1-3 before starting book 4 & I am glad I did, they have been great books.
I was a bit disappointed in the ending of this book where as the previous 2 books bought a bit more closure to the story this one didn't.
I have received book #4 as an ARC from The Reading Room & it was because of this that I went back & read book 1-3 before starting book 4 & I am glad I did, they have been great books.
December 29, 2015
After reading two other books in the series, I knew what to expect. I still enjoyed the retired detective Darian, the Queensland locations, and the insights into police culture, but the crimes are really described in far too much graphic and unnecessary detail. All the women, both the endless victims and Darian's partners, are all beautiful. The victims have all been exactly the same in the three books, and killed for much the same reasons.
March 11, 2014
5 stars for thoroughly creeping me out.
As someone who has lived in the area it hit home hard.
Uncompromising and grittier than a fast fall off a bike on a gravel road, not for the soft or half-hearted and better by far than a lot of American crime!
As someone who has lived in the area it hit home hard.
Uncompromising and grittier than a fast fall off a bike on a gravel road, not for the soft or half-hearted and better by far than a lot of American crime!
March 16, 2014
Loved it!
April 13, 2014
A gripping read!
November 2, 2014
I would wish to get other book as this doesn't seem complete.
April 6, 2016
The trouble is that I didn't believe any of it.
July 30, 2016
Fascinating evil
I didn't like the emptiness and disillusion. I felt the hero had been dis-empowered and life was futile. It kept my attention.
I didn't like the emptiness and disillusion. I felt the hero had been dis-empowered and life was futile. It kept my attention.
April 12, 2020
This continues the excellent series by Tony Cavanaugh - strong characters, well paced, a few twists to keep the reader guessing. Very high quality crime writing
August 22, 2014
Another compelling tale from Cavanaugh set on our beautiful Sunshine Coast.
September 12, 2015
The ending was a bit frustrating but of course, leads to next in series
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