Books Set on a Train or Ship

Participating in Winter Books & Bites Bingo? Try these books set on a train or ship.

Updated December 17, 2025
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Cold eternity
Barnes, S. A.
Paper Book
"You'll want to read this one with the lights on."--Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author Cold Eternity is the instant USA Today bestselling space horror from S.A. Barnes, perfect for fans of Severance, where desperation for eternal life leads...
Dead silence
Barnes, S. A.
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2022 by the New York Public Library * One of the Best SFF Books of 2022 (Gizmodo) * One of the Best SF Mysteries of 2022 (CrimeReads) * A GoodReads Choice Award finalist for Best Science Fiction! Titanic meets Event Horizon...
The scourge between stars
Brown, Ness
Paper Book
Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend set aboard a doomed generation ship harboring something terrible within its walls. "A perfect scare to swallow up in one sitting." --Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times...
The long way to a small, angry planet
Chambers, Becky
Paper Book
National Bestseller! The acclaimed modern science fiction masterpiece, Hugo Award winner for Best Series! Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space--and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe--in this...
Murder on the Orient Express
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
From the Queen of Mystery, the exclusive authorized edition of the most widely read mystery of all time--now a major motion picture directed by Kenneth Branagh and produced by Ridley Scott! "What more . . . can a mystery addict desire?"--New York Times The murderer is...
From below
Coates, Darcy
Paper Book
Darcy Coates brings you a brand-new horror novel that'll take your breath away... From Below is: Perfect for fans of Jennifer McMahon and Wendy Webb For lovers of ghost stories and anyone mesmerized by the depths of the ocean-and what hides in the darkness ...
The Paris Express
Donoghue, Emma
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the bestselling and "soul-stirring" (Oprah Daily) author of Room, a sweeping historical "nail-biter" (People) of a novel about the infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station. Based on an 1895...
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck
Elmhirst, Sophie
THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025 ALSO NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY NPR, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, AND MORE "This is nonfiction that...
The night birds
Golden, Christopher
Paper Book
The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX. Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak years...
Into the drowning deep
Grant, Mira
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant, author of the renowned Newsflesh series, returns with a novel that takes us to a new world of ancient mysteries and mythological dangers come to life. The ocean is home to many myths, But some are deadly. . . ...
Water for elephants : a novel
Gruen, Sara.
Paper Book
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and for Jacob the circus world was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of...
The stars too fondly : a novel
Hamilton, Emily
Paper Book
In her breathtaking debut--part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com--Emily Hamilton weaves a suspenseful, charming, and irresistibly joyous tale of fierce friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself. So, here's the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't...
The girl on the train
Hawkins, Paula.
Paper Book
Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect...
Under fortunate stars
Hutchings, Ren
Paper Book
A modern, progressive homage to classic space opera stories, with flawed heroes and time travel Two Ships. One Chance To Save The Future. Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven's freighter the Jonah<...
Bullet train : a novel
Isaka, Kōtarō
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE STRAND CRITICS AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT A dark, satirical thriller by the bestselling Japanese author, following the perilous train ride of five highly motivated assassins--soon to be a major film from Sony starring Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor...
The Night That Finds Us All
Jacobs, John Hornor
It begins and ends as always, with the sea. Sam Vines is struggling. Her boat is up on the hard and she doesn't have enough money to get her back in the water. Turns out the snorkelers and the scubadivers are looking for the ultra-luxury boating experience, not the single-handed, rarely sober,...
Flight or fright
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Stephen King hates to fly. Now he and co-editor Bev Vincent would like to share this fear of flying with you. Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you're suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph and...
Dead wake : the last crossing of the Lusitania
Larson, Erik
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania "Both terrifying and enthralling."--Entertainment Weekly"Thrilling, dramatic and powerful."...
Flight of dreams
Lawhon, Ariel
Paper Book
With everyone on the Hindenburg harboring dark secrets and at least one person determined that the airship won't make the return trip, Flight of Dreams gives an utterly suspenseful, heart-wrenching explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries of the twentieth century.
A night to remember
Lord, Walter
Ebook
#1 New York Times Bestseller: The definitive book on the sinking of the Titanic, based on interviews with survivors, by the author of The Miracle of Dunkirk.   At first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound. Passengers described it as...
Migrations
McConaghy, Charlotte
Paper Book
* INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Book of the Year in Fiction "Visceral and haunting" (New York Times Book Review) · "Hopeful" (Washington Post) · "Powerful" (Los Angeles Times) · "Thrilling" (TIME) ·...
The North water : a novel
McGuire, Ian.
Paper Book
Now an AMC+ original miniseries event starring Colin Farrell and Jack O'Connell! A nineteenth-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp, and highly original tale that grips like a thriller One of The New York Times Book Review's...
One last stop
McQuiston, Casey.
Paper Book
*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* *INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER* *INSTANT #1 INDIE BESTSELLER* From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks... ...
Moby-Dick, or, The whale
Melville, Herman
Paper Book
"It will be a strange sort of a book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy.... Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this."Moby...
The ship of brides : a novel
Moyes, Jojo
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars and Someone Else's Shoes, a post-WWII story of the war brides who crossed the seas by the thousands to face their unknown futures. 1946. World War II has ended and all over the world, young...
The circus train
Parikh, Amita
Paper Book
International Bestseller and #1 LibraryReads Pick Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in this World War II debut about a magnificent travelling circus, a star-crossed romance, and one girl's coming-of-age during the darkest of times. "A powerful...
In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
Paper Book
From the author of the forthcoming book, "Valiant Ambition," the riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, soon to be a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, directed by Ron Howard, premiering on December 11, 2015 Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson...
The unsinkable Greta James : a novel
Smith, Jennifer E.
Paper Book
An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in "a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places" (Rebecca Serle, bestselling author of In Five Years) "The characters are...
Everyone on this train is a suspect : a novel
Stevenson, Benjamin
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery in the spirt of Murder on the Orient Express. With Ernest Cunningham, "Stevenson has brought a modern-day Poirot to the mystery scene"(Michelle Carpenter). When the...
Salvation day
Wallace, Kali
Paper Book
A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller. They thought the ship would be their salvation.   Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been...

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