The Train Now Departing: Two Novellas

by Martha Grimes

Featuring the two The Train Now Departing and When “The Mousetrap” Closes “Full of suspense and surprise. These carefully written little gems showcase Grimes at her best.”— Library Journal “Grimes has created a work of value here, a book that expands her art, her reputation—and possibly her audience.”— The Richmond-Times Dispatch “Atmospheric and chilling…Grimes [exhibits] a complete mastery of emotional nuance and [a] virtuoso treatment of the grayest coloration.”— The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) “Intelligent…Merits applause.”— The Toronto Star “As atmospherically evocative as [an] Edward Hopper painting.”— The Washington Post “An a cappella novella, each note strong and noncompetitive.”— Los Angeles Times “Grimes once again demonstrates her keen eye for character. Both of these languidly paced novellas focus on middle-aged women who long for respite from their narrow, disappointing lives and find it, at least temporarily, in the company of a man…Thoughtful, compelling, even dark stories—for readers more inclined toward investigating emotions than searching for armchair adventure.”— Booklist

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Novella, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Adult

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2000

About the author

Martha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.

She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.

Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.

The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Aria]

Well the 1st novella, which the book is titled after, was just kinda like, "Meh." In truth, it became tedious. After they discussed the planned river trip in the Amazon I had to skip to the end and see if what I expected to happen was indeed what happened, b/c I really could not get through reading anymore of that monotony. Well, what I expected did happen, so I scanned the final pages to see that I hadn't missed anything that would add to the tale. Nope, so I called it (thankfully) done and moved on.

The second novella, When the Mousetrap Closes, was better. I manage to finish it and found the characters more interesting, if still somewhat bland. The end left me kind of, "Meh," again, but it was still way better than the other novella.

Overall, I can't say I would recommend these tales to anyone. They might be better as verbal short stories when one is trying to kill time somewhere. That's how I think these tales would be best presented and received, anyway. To each their own.

[Stef Rozitis]

This was really well written, achingly believable but depressing. I liked the spinster protagonist in the second story particularly but overall the idea that you can't connect with people that relationships are just impossible and people are irrational and unpredictable is a disturbing one and possibly not a useful one for the time we live in (the book was written a while back so probably more the fashion to explore the unknowability of the other then).

I didn't like to what extent both stories leaned toward on the (male) deuteragonist as the centre of the protagonists intention. But it was believable. The descriptions of food were beautiful and woven in well.

[Ayla]

Two stories, each centering on a middle age single woman. Both ending very sadly.

[Cynthia L'Hirondelle]

Both stories grab right away even though they appear to be about very small things. The first story could be a case study of extremely subtle psychological abuse and how the protagonist fights to keep herself afloat. Also throughout the whole story, you keep wondering what is really going on. It is a lot of fun to guess how it will end.

The second shorter story also has very tiny stitches full of tension that keeps you guessing until the end.

Both are masterfully written and probably under-appreciated. Perhaps if they have been authored by a Lawrence or a Thomas or an Oswald Grimes they might be looked at with deeper interest.

[Mysteryfan]

Two interesting but rather depressing novellas. Both novellas have a woman of a certain age as the protagonist. They spend large amounts of time alone Each starts meeting a man for weekly meals (tea or lunch) but the meetings are unsatisfying to read about. Well written, full of atmospheric details, but not to everyone's taste.

[Miriam]

Two odd self-reflective novellas. They start nowhere and go nowhere but inside the mind of the narrator exploring the deeply subjective and often deceptive nature of relationships. They are, oddly, both satisfying and not.

[Judith Shadford]

It helps, well, it helped me, to be genuinely struck by Grimes taking on the work of Barbara Pym.

A quote from a NY Times review:
Barbara Pym, the midcentury [1950s] English novelist, is forever being forgotten, and forever revived. Her novels sketch a circumscribed scene whose anchors were the church and the vicarage, and the busy, decent Englishmen and -women (more women) who shuffled between the two. To read her, one must have an appetite for endless jumble sales and whist drives, and the interfering wisdom of dowagers and distressed gentlewomen. Pym’s is an unsexy milieu, quaint even in her own time.

That should simplify what I'm talking about. The paperback edition has a Hopper print of a woman alone on a train, reading. Perfect. "She" is not married to the man she lunches with at least once a week. His rude silences and patronizing treatment of her is obviously that of a marriage gone cold and unburied. Except he's just a friend, sort of. He's a travel writer. Goes throughout the world and writes books about where he's been in romantic, colorful language.

She asks him about Sorrento. He says, "Cold. Cold as marble." That's it! Tells her she should get out more. Always asks her about her food, but pays no attention to the answer. So she gives up and says "Fine." Apparently good enough....

The second novella is a little warmer. London. "When The Mousetrap Closes" is a phrase enjoyed by the woman, Edith, and her mother as the identifier when either will make a difficult decision. Put off until "Mousetrap" closes. Edith meets a handsome actor in her teashop who plays a string of starring roles, including Mousetrap. They chat, then meet either at the teashop or her apartment every Wednesday. He only takes one bite of each pastry. He denies becoming personally involved in the characters he plays, says it is simply a matter of "going for the trick." After several months of seemingly increasing friendship...well, that would be spoilers, wouldn't it.

Martha Grimes is both herself and a wonderful reflection of the work of Ms Pym. Proving that Pym's work was worth framing as her own. She does it exceedingly well and expands her own craft in a surprising direction.

[Roha Zaheer]

Book review on “The Train Now Departing”
“The Train Now Departing”
By: Martha Grimes
Review by: Roha Zaheer


The Train Now Departing is one of the worst books I have ever read. It’s dull, lifeless and tiresome. The unnamed main character of the story is a bland woman who lives on inheritance in her house in a small town, she has given up her job as a teacher and spends her days in desperation. A chance meeting with a man who writes travel books leads to her with her very limited human contact. The two have late-afternoon lunches during which his attention to his food outweighs her need for conversation; when they do talk, they laugh. She only picks at the rich food, preferring cheese sandwiches at the railway cafe. Everything about the plot is bland and boring. There is nothing that strikes the reader, therefore, keeping the story at a slow pace. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone I know. The fact that the main character doesn’t even have a name shows the reader that the writer has put little to no effort into the plot.

[Brooke]

I devoured the first novella. It was so plain, so mundane, and yet it was perfectly fascinating and whimsical to me. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the events, and yet I enjoyed the ride and the main character realising certain aspects about her life. I didn't see the twist at the end coming, though I had expected something would happen because of how the story was progressing. The settings were fun to experience and I liked how there were no names, so the focus was solely on how ordinary and yet extraordinary the entire story was. There is a beauty in this simplicity.
I didn't really understand the second novella, to be honest, and it was not as captivating as the first in my opinion. However, I noticed a similar pattern with the story, and I also fell in love with the ending, how unsatisfying yet satisfying it had ended up being.

[Linda C]

Two novellas both featuring a middle-aged woman living alone after many years living with their mother who is now deceased. Both women have routines and spend lots of time alone reflectively. In both stories they meet a male stranger and continue meeting weekly one for lunch, one for tea. In the first novella the woman feels like a place-holder for a travel writer who likes someone across the table but seems only to criticize her thoughts and lifestyle. In the second the conversation is more lively and the woman thinks a friendship is growing while the man refers to himself as acting at life and calculating. Both relationships come to an end at the end of the story. I enjoyed the second one more than the first.

[Beth]

I kept putting this book down and had no desire to return to it except when it was the last thing on my nightstand. Slow-paced, interior, kind of sad. Both novellas felt like stories from another time. The first story was repetitive. The male character was over-bearing and unkind. I couldn't figure out why the woman would continue meeting him for a late lunch when she didn't seem to enjoy any aspect of their meetings. I had no emotional reaction to the ending.
The second story was a bit more interesting, but I can't make any sense of whatever the point of the ending was. So the third star of this rating is less because "I liked it" and more because Martha Grimes writes well and whether I "got it" or not is beside the point.

[Chrissie Whitley]

Yes, this is introspective and self-reflective and all the like things—especially the first of the two novellas of which this book is composed—but, man!, these are quite the pair of one-note chants disguised as stories.

While I hated neither story fully, they both were tedious to the point of wanting to toss the book aside. The characters of the titular novella, The Train Now Departing, were fully fleshed out in some aspects but in others they felt oddly flat and disjointed. Yes, this truly explored many facets of human nature and was relatable in bits and pieces, stops and starts, but this was as disconnected from being immersive as a bucket of cold water being dumped on you. I wanted to like the narrator, a middle-aged woman who (for reasons never really explained or explored) continues to have meals with this male travel writer. The two are clearly incompatible, and perhaps I was supposed to feel that she had latched on to him for companionship, but she felt too strongly against him and made very little excuses for his disinterested behavior and disconnected manner. I never felt that she misunderstood her own feelings about him, that she was feeling a connection when there assuredly was none, and she even seemed to understand his personality, too. I could make neither heads nor tails of the pair of them, and my irritation grew to the point of resentment. This story barely goes anywhere, and when it does I had lost the interest level necessary to even care.

The second novella, When the Mousetrap Closes, shorter than the first, was somehow even more bland and lifeless despite sporting much more dialogue and would-be relatable scenes. This one tried a bit too hard and was a bit too similar to the first to stand on its own. Just like the first novella, I very much felt the desire to be insightful and honed, but there was no balance struck with either story and both left me feeling indifferent and slightly irritated.

[Crystal Toller]

Both novellas in this book are about women of a certain age who meet men for lunch. In the first novella, the women meets with a man who is a travel writer and they have late lunches. I really struggled to get through the first novella and found it tedious and just blah. The second novella a lady of a certain age meets an actor in a cafe and they have tea every Wednesday and really do not have interesting conversations. The second novella was just as tedious as the first. I usually like this author's books and was really disappointed with this selection.

[Estella]

A *huge* disappointment. Through the years, I have very much enjoyed reading Grimes’ mystery series featuring Richard Jury, but her departure from the mystery genre into straight fiction falls flat, in my opinion. The two novellas which comprise this book are dark, depressing and dull. I actually didn’t finish the second one, because reading it felt like I was slogging through mud—not my idea of fun. I’ll stick to the Jury mysteries, thanks.

[Kate]

This very short book of two novellas is oddly entertaining to me. It isn't a mystery except in the way that all novels are mysteries, who knows what will happen and why. The story should be read aloud like poetry or a narration. It follows a woman's thought patterns in third person. I could imagine a womans's voice heard on a PBS program reading as a film runs through the days. Nothing really happens in either story, but both had twists. I had fun.

[Joan]

These two novellas were not at all what I expected from Martha Grimes, but I thought them both very good. The subject of both is similar: Each features a lonely middle-aged woman with little to no social life. There's very little action; it's all about the characters. If I someone had described the stories to me I might not have found them appealing, but both drew me in. Between the two, I prefer the second one, possibly just because it's shorter and more succinct.

[Hari Brandl]

I liked this book (actually, 2 novellas) for it's melanch0ly mood. It is totally appropriate that the dust jacket bears a reproduction of a painting by Edward Hopper. Entering into the storiess of the two protagonists is like walking into Hopper's world.

[Lisa Brewer]

For those of you who prefer a fast-moving plot with lots of action: let this train pass by. For those of you who prefer character development and good prose, all aboard. Two novellas that work well together. Themes of isolation and observation.

[Tim Robinson]

By its author and title, it ought to be a locked room murder mystery. Not a bit of it! It turns out to be a rather tedious character study of a woman who has regular lunches with a man she can't stand.

[Judy]

Love all her writing. Author has the knack of bringing out all the inner workings of her characters.

[Lisa Lewis Lewis]

I found both stories to be rather monotonous, although I actually made it through the second one (unlike the first.)

[Nancy]

Two novellas, each interesting in it's own way, each a story of human nature.

[Katie Hilton]

These are two novellas, both intriguing but not as fascinating as Grimes' usual long novels.

[Anne]

Uneven short stories.

[Anwnh5]

Did not like the first story. Second story was very good.

[MKF]

DNF - Bland, boring, and pointless.

[Susan Schneider]

The first novella was pointless, over detailed and went no where. The second novella seemed the right length but was a bit predictable and sad.

[Madhusree]

Well written short novels. Not much happens but the writing is great & holds my attention.

[Carrie]

I love Martha Grimes' books but NOT these novellas. Boring! I kept reading to see if they'd improve - they didn't.

[Cooper Renner]

Not mysteries, but compelling tales of lunch and conversation