A Christmas Railway Mystery

by Edward Marston

Overview

December 1860. Headed for the morning shift at the Swindon Locomotive works is an army of men pouring out of terraced houses built by the GWR, a miniature town and planned community that aims to provide for its employees from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, boiler smith Frank Rodman is headed for the grave sooner than he'd expected, or he will be once his missing head is found.

Colbeck, the Railway Detective, finds his investigation into Rodman's murder mired in contradictions. Was the victim a short-tempered brawler, or a committed Christian and chorister who aimed to better himself? On the trail of Rodman's enemy as the season starts to bite, Colbeck finds little festive cheer in the twists and turns of this peculiar case.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749021696
Publisher:	Allison & Busby, Limited
Publication date:	10/18/2018
Series:	Railway Detective , #15
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward Marston has written over a hundred books across many series. They range from the era of the Domesday Book to the Home Front during WWI, via Elizabethan theatre and the Regency period. He is best known for the hugely successful Railway Detective series set during Queen Victoria's reign.

Editorial Reviews

The combination of characters, place, and time gives readers get an entertaining escape that showcases the virtues of logical thinking, along with a toe dip into a bygone industrial age. The whole makes a cozy, light read suitable for winter evenings, especially around Christmas.

New York Journal of Books

Sassy characters, fantastic plot with new discoveries coming to lite with every new page. Bravo Mr. Marston!

Alina's Reading Corner

This book is very entertaining and a wonderful addition to the Railway Detective Series. Mr. Marston is a highly creative writer who knows his subject matter and can weave a story that will keep the reader turning the page… A Christmas Railway Mystery is fast-paced, well written and highly entertaining. Anyone who enjoys a good who-done-it will find that they cannot put this book down.

The Cozy Review

11/20/2017
Insp. Robert Colbeck (aka the Railway Detective) has a gruesomely fascinating murder to solve in Marston’s uneven 15th entry in his Victorian mystery series (after The Circus Train Conspiracy). Shortly before Christmas 1860, a headless corpse is found in the Swindon erecting shop, “where the multiple parts of a locomotive were fitted carefully together,” of the Great Western Railway. Tattoos identify the body as that of Frank Rodman, a foundry worker. There’s no obvious motive for the killing, and even less of one for the removal of the head, which eventually reappears in horrific circumstances. The local police ask Scotland Yard to send Colbeck, a former barrister whose cases are all connected in some manner with the railways of the period. Colbeck methodically interviews those who might have wanted Rodman dead, but the main story line is diluted by an extraneous and contrived subplot involving the abduction of Colbeck’s superior that serves only to showcase the lead’s acumen. The solution to the murder doesn’t do justice to the intriguing puzzle. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly