The Railway Detective: The bestselling Victorian mystery series

by Edward Marston

Overview

London 1851. With the opening of the Great Exhibition at hand, interest is mounting in the engineering triumphs of the railways, but not everyone feels like celebrating.
In an audacious attack, the London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, causing many casualties. Planned with military precision, this crime proves a challenge to Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck who fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
As Colbeck closes in on the criminal masterminds, events take an unexpected turn when the beautiful Madeleine, daughter of the injured train driver, becomes a pawn in the criminals' game. With time running out, good and evil, new and old, battle against each other. But will the long arm of the law have speed on its side?
The Railway Detective is an action-packed dip into murky 1850s London. Full of historical detail, unexpected twists and memorable characters, this is a mystery that will surprise you at every turn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749008864
Publisher:	Allison & Busby, Limited
Publication date:	07/12/2009
Series:	Railway Detective , #1
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	585,334
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Edward Marston has written well over a hundred books, including some non-fiction. He is best known for his hugely successful Railway Detective series and he also writes the Bow Street Rivals series featuring twin detectives set during the Regency; the Home Front Detective novels set during the First World War; and the Ocean Liner mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

The prolific Marston (the Domesday Books series, etc.) starts yet another historical mystery series with this middling police procedural that starts well but runs out of steam. Robert Colbeck, a former attorney now serving as an inspector in the fledging Scotland Yard of 1851, investigates a daring daylight train robbery that results in the derailment of the train and the theft of gold and mail. Later, those initially suspected of having provided the inside information that enabled the scheme's startling and speedy success turn up dead, while someone begins to blackmail members of the upper-class with the stolen letters. The spirited byplay among Colbeck, his rule-bound superintendent and his sergeant recalls Peter Lovesey's superlative Sergeant Cribb novels. But while Colbeck is a bright, unconventional and imaginative sleuth, Marston's choice to unmask the crimes' prime movers halfway through and to reduce an engaging female character, the daughter of the train's driver, into a stereotypical damsel in distress ultimately disappoints. One hopes Colbeck's next exploit will offer a more suspenseful, sophisticated plot. Agent, Jane Conway-Gordon. (May 1) FYI: Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, who is also the author of Honolulu Play-Off (Forecasts, Feb. 23) and other titles in his Alan Saxon golf mystery series. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Set in 1850s England, Marston's excellent new historical series features a Scotland Yard detective with attitude. Inspector Robert Colbeck tends to look down on local cops and tells them so. When well-organized thieves derail and rob a train of gold and mail, Colbeck is in his element. Only insiders would know schedules and amounts, and the safe required two separate keys, so Colbeck targets post office, bank, and mint employees. As with his Elizabethan and medieval mysteries (e.g., The Vagabond Clown; The Bawdy Basket), Marston fuses realistic time, place, and events with believable protagonists. Strongly recommended. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"A thoroughly enjoyable Victorian crime novel, a must for aficionados. For the general reader in search of fresh entertainment, and well worth reading."

Historical Novels Review