Four Twists to Chicago (With a Vengeance by Riley Sager)
Last year, I discovered the work of (as it turned out) a popular thriller author, Riley Sager. Back then, I read Survive the Night, which I found to be a fairly solid and fast-paced novel, though not without its flaws. So when I saw that the author had released a new book, I didn’t hesitate to pick up With a Vengeance. Do I regret it? Honestly, not at all.
Plot
Anna Matheson’s family was destroyed — deliberately and brutally. After learning the names of the six people responsible, she decides to take justice into her own hands. She gathers all of them aboard a train traveling from Philadelphia to Chicago, intending to hand them over to the authorities upon arrival.
Anna has planned everything carefully: apart from herself, her assistant, the engineer, and the six “guests,” there is not a single extra person on board. In this isolated environment, she has only a few hours to obtain confessions and finally understand one thing: why? However, her plan begins to fall apart when one of the guests turns up dead. Who is behind the murder — a fellow passenger trying to cover their tracks, or… is there someone else on the train?
Story Development
The first thing that can be said about the book is that it’s an incredibly easy read. The story picks up a strong pace almost immediately and maintains it all the way to the end, fully delivering on its promise: With a Vengeance is a genuinely entertaining thriller for fans of suspenseful page-turners.
As in Survive the Night, Sager employs an interesting technique: he limits the story’s timeframe while expanding its scope through numerous flashbacks. It works remarkably well. Once you realize that the characters have only a single night and a final destination that the train will inevitably reach, the tension sustains itself—even during relatively quiet scenes. The flashbacks never slow the narrative down; instead, they gradually fill in the picture of what happened twelve years earlier.
Of course, the book is not free from clichés. The characters inevitably need to split up, isolate themselves, or do something equally foolish so that someone can conveniently ambush them. It’s a genre trope that stands out, especially since most of the characters otherwise seem like reasonably intelligent people.
Characters
As for the characters, despite their large number, they are handled quite well. Sager gives each of them a distinct personality and voice. Anna’s six “guests” are not a faceless group of villains — as is often the case in this type of story. Each played a different role in what happened to her family, each has their own logic and justification. Some are cowards, some cynics, and some have genuinely convinced themselves that they did the right thing.
This characterization is not there merely for the sake of depth — it serves the mystery itself. Once the murders begin, each victim comes with a plausible motive, and that keeps the reader engaged.
Anna herself is convincing. She is neither a superhero nor a cold-blooded revenge machine. She is a person who has spent twelve years pursuing a single goal, only to discover that reality is far more complicated than even the most carefully crafted plan. She is interesting to follow precisely because she does not always make the right decisions — and she knows it.
I’d also like to say a few words about the “main antagonist,” but doing so would be a major spoiler. The character’s reveal is more closely tied to the novel’s idea message, which I’ll discuss later. The important thing is that the motivation behind it is absolutely rock-solid, and that is refreshing.
Ending
To discuss the ending, I need to start a little further back. Sager delays the first major twist for quite a while, and by the time it finally arrives, it no longer has the intended impact. The author seems aware of this himself, as the twist is quickly discarded. Twist #2 is just as predictable, and it suffers the same fate.
The main problem is that there are only two realistic suspects, and Sager ultimately chooses the less convincing option. When the solution arrives (almost immediately after the previous two twists) it fails to impress because it feels like a deus ex machina that turns the entire story into little more than a series of coincidences.
A locked-room mystery works best when the solution feels both impossible and, in retrospect, inevitable. Here, that balance is completely absent, and it is disappointing.
But Sager doesn’t stop there. Just when it seems that everything is over, he delivers a fourth twist — and this one actually works. Yes, it feels somewhat excessive (after all, it is the fourth twist in roughly a hundred pages), but it is genuinely surprising while remaining fair. All the clues were there; you simply had to pay attention. This final reveal elevates the ending and compensates for some of the earlier weaknesses.
Big Idea
Revenge does not bring relief. It’s hardly a new idea, and Sager does not seem interested in presenting it as one. He only develops the theme in earnest near the very end of the novel.
The message is simple but realistic: when a person spends years obsessed with a single goal (trying to reclaim what was taken from them and restore justice) they often sacrifice everything else without even realizing it. Eventually, they discover that the price was far higher than they were willing to pay. Much higher.
The novel does not moralize about this. It simply shows how such things sometimes happen.
Final Thoughts
With a Vengeance is an easy and enjoyable read with an atmospheric setting, solid characters, and a mystery that, while occasionally creaky, generally works. The ending could have been stronger (the first two twists are frankly weak) and that is unfortunate because the fourth twist proves that Sager is capable of much better.
It’s a fast, occasionally silly thriller, but more or less exactly what you expect it to be. If you enjoyed the author’s previous books, this one is unlikely to disappoint. If you didn’t, it probably won’t change your mind.