Death on the Patagonian Express

Conrad’s uneven fourth travel mystery (after 2016’s Dearly Departed) takes Amy Abel, owner of Amy’s Travel, and her mother, Fanny Abel, who writes the TrippyGirl blog offering embellished stories about Amy’s adventures, from New York to South America, where they join entrepreneur Jorge O’Bannion’s media tour promoting the New Patagonian Express. The eight-day tour starts in Buenos Aires, where they meet O’Bannion’s forbidding business partner, Lola Pisano. They later board O’Bannion’s vintage train with several other travel writers for the trip to Glendaval, his large Chilean estancia, where a simple horseback ride takes a surprising turn. Fanny claims to have seen condors pecking at a woman’s dead body, but when she returns to the spot, the body is gone. Fanny and Amy spend the rest of the tour looking for answers. Conrad’s mother-daughter pairing never really strikes a spark, but armchair travelers should enjoy the ride. Agent: Allison Cohen, Gersh Agency. (Jan.)