Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

The Epigraph consists of two quotes. The first is rule number nine from S. S. Van Dine’s essay “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories”: In a detective novel, there can be only one detective. The second is an aphorism from American writer Don Marquis: “A sequel is an admission that you've been reduced to imitating yourself.”

This section reproduces the layout of compartments in a section of the Ghan, the train aboard which the writers’ festival takes place. Also included are a map of the train’s route down the center of Australia, from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south, and two drawings of a typical cabin: its configuration for sitting during the day and its configuration for sleeping at night.

The “Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival 50th Anniversary Program” is a false document that reproduces the program for the literary festival that Ernest “Ernie” Cunningham, the book’s narrator and protagonist, plans to attend aboard the Ghan. It welcomes the festival’s guest of honor, Henry McTavish, and includes a laudatory quote from a review of one of his books.