Audiobook Review: With A Vengeance by Riley Sager

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

With A Vengeance by Riley Sager

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Penguin Audio (June 10, 2025)

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Narrators: Erin Bennett

With A Vengeance is my sixth Riley Sager novel, so you could say I had a good idea of what to expect. To be sure, there was a killer mystery and plenty of plot twists—and yet, there was still one element that managed to catch me off guard, and that was the historical fiction angle. Set in the 1950’s and centered around a doomed group of passengers aboard a luxury rail line, this one gave me more vintage noir vibes than his usual modern-day thrillers. While I appreciated the shift in setting and tone, it did take a bit of an adjustment.

As I mentioned before, the bulk of the novel takes place on a train, with the story unfolding over a tightly compressed timeline that can be measured in hours instead of days. The main character is a young woman named Anna Matheson, once the privileged daughter of a celebrated railway magnate until a devastating scandal shattered her family. Twelve years later, Anna invites the six people she blames for her family’s downfall onto the Philadelphia Phoenix, a state-of-the-art passenger train that her father’s company had helped develop before a rival business owner framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. That conspiracy had led to a cascade of tragic incidents—first, the death of Anna’s brother, then her father’s arrest and subsequent killing in prison, and finally, her mother’s suicide, leaving Anna to be raised by a distant relative until she came of age.

Which means that Anna has had plenty of time to grieve—and to plot her revenge. She’d carried out her plan meticulously, using what little resources she had left to send out carefully crafted invitations, buy out all the tickets to ensure that the train would run with no other passengers, and to bribe the engineers to guarantee a non-stop journey to Chicago. Her goal? To confront the six and ensure that their comeuppance will be waiting at the end of the line, with FBI agents at their destination to take them into custody. But as she soon finds out, desperate people have a tendency to act unpredictably and dangerously when cornered. As tensions rise among her six targets and the reality of what’s coming begins to set in, it appears that at least one of them is willing to do anything—even kill—to avoid being exposed and arrested. With no escape and the situation rapidly spiraling out of control, Anna begins to realize that her plan to exact justice on her own terms might end up costing her life as well.

While it might not boast the most convincing premise, requiring no small amount of suspension of disbelief, it does perfectly set the scene for a locked-room mystery. Once the train departs and the first body drops, the sense of entrapment kicks in hard: no one gets on, no one gets off. Danger circles somewhere among the small, handpicked group of passengers. Despite its luxuriously appointed interiors and high-end amenities, the Philadelphia Phoenix is still a no-exit scenario, a confined environment that feels appropriately claustrophobic and isolated.

That said, this book didn’t completely work for me, and here’s why: despite the intriguing concept, the execution felt off from the start, with the first act weighed by the need to introduce the large ensemble cast and establish backstory for everyone. On the one hand, I recognize this brilliant throwback to the classic noir genre which often featured characters presented like they’ve stepped straight out of a pulp novel—the housekeeper, the secretary, the engineer, the military man, etc. But by the time we’re through, the pacing has already lost a lot of its momentum. Anna is also difficult to connect with as a protagonist, because while her heart seems to be in the right place, a lot of her choices don’t always feel like her own but are instead made to serve the plot. I mean, can anyone truly be that naïve? And finally, Sager’s writing style, which usually works well in his contemporary thrillers, didn’t quite mesh with the historical setting here. It’s supposed to be the 1950s, but the dialogue and prose feel too modern, which took me out of immersion.

In short, With A Vengeance had plenty of potential, but it didn’t quite blow me away. And yet, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the book overall. Like I said, if you’re even passing familiar with Riley Sager’s work, you know he can write a compulsively readable thriller. Sometimes his storytelling can feel a little shaky or his characters a bit thin, but usually there’s still plenty enough to keep me going. This book might feature a concept that ends up being stronger than the actual content, but there’s no denying its entertainment value. And if you end up listening to the audiobook like I did, you’re in for a great listen, with an excellent performance from Erin Bennett whose narration brings out the strongest elements of tension and atmosphere from the novel.