Random House
April 2010
On Sale: April 20, 2010
Featuring: Otto Wheeler; Darwin Rinehart; Clark Gable
224 pages ISBN: 1400067634 EAN: 9781400067633 Hardcover Add to Wish List
In the tradition of Murder on the Orient Express, Jim Lehrer
brings together a cast of characters as fascinating as the
historic train that will carry them from Chicago to Los
Angeles. In its heyday, the Santa Fe railroad’s famous Super
Chief was so replete with wealth and celebrity that it
became known as “The Train of the Stars.” And so we find it
in April of 1956, embarking from the Windy City for its trip
across the Plains to the West
Coast.
Climbing aboard is an
amazing spectrum of passengers. There’s Darwin Rinehart, a
once great Hollywood producer whose most recent movie was a
total flop and who now faces bankruptcy and shame. In a dark
recess of a train car hides a mysterious, disheveled, sickly
man who has not paid for a ticket, smuggled inside by an
unscrupulous porter. Millionaire Otto Wheeler arrives in a
wheelchair; deathly ill, he knows that this will be his last
trip on the great train. Clark Gable causes a stir when he
steps aboard, and though he’s ridden these rails for years,
indulging in booze and women with equal fervor, those around
him sense that this time, something is different. And
finally there’s former President Harry Truman,
distinguished, congenial, and constantly accompanied, for
his protection, by a railroad
detective.
As the Super
Chief pulls out of Dearborn Station, the passengers—famous
and infamous, anonymous and enigmatic—can’t possibly imagine
what lies ahead. For as the train gains speed, a series of
deadly events unfolds.
Full of
remarkable detail and passion for a lost world of opulence
and all its intrigue and delights, Jim Lehrer’s Super
spins a complex web of suspense. The twists and turns will
keep readers turning the pages at top speed to finish one of
the most captivating stories of Lehrer’s prolific career.
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