The first thing to say about this novel is that if you don't know that it is the tenth and final book in a series then you could be slightly lost. I know that because I was!
The story is set in Marrakech in Morocco in 1966 and Vicky, a teenager, has travelled on the train of the title with the expectation of meeting a grandmother for the first time and a vague hope of meeting Yves Saint Laurent.
She is then sucked into a chaotic world of events linked to political turmoil in the country and the pasts of a whole family of characters who all seem to turn up as the novel goes on. It is very hard to keep track sometimes of who everybody is and where they actually are at anyone time but if you have read books 1-9 this will probably be easier.
It's an exciting story about a young girl out of her depth in a foreign country surrounded by a complex web of lies and deceits from the past which are slowly unravelled. The portrait of Marrakech sometimes reads as if it came from a travel guide with exotic odours, places and food, recipes even, interspersed within the story. Sometimes, the contrast is a little odd and the political unrest and the slight sense of threat to foreigners also seems a bit overplayed.
At the end, the complexity of wrapping up all the stories requires a few coincidences and some unlikely plotlines but if you've read the others this will all make sense and will make the book as a whole an even more enjoyable read.
(Night Train to Marrakech is published by HarperCollins. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance copy.)
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