Alistair MacLean · 1974 · rail

Alistair MacLean's 1974 thriller, a murder mystery on rails. A US Army troop train climbs into the frozen Nevada mountains, bound for cholera-stricken Fort Humboldt with medicines and men. But passengers begin to vanish and die one by one, and the prisoner John Deakin is not the wanted man he seems - as the train grinds through Breakheart Pass toward a deadly conspiracy.

1. 1
   Reese City

   A US Army supply train pulls out of Reese City, carrying troops and medicine to relieve a fort stricken by cholera - and among its passengers, a captured outlaw named John Deakin who is not what he seems.

2. 2
   Breakheart Pass

   As the train labours up through the snowbound peaks toward Breakheart Pass, men begin to disappear and die one by one, and Deakin peels back a conspiracy of murder and treason hidden aboard the storm-locked cars.

3. 3
   Fort Humboldt

   At Fort Humboldt the train's true purpose is laid bare - not a mission of mercy at all, but the last move in a deadly scheme of guns, gold and betrayal, which Deakin must shatter before the killers finish it.