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Jack Nightingale #5.5
Tracks: A Jack Nightingale short story
Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate when an old man appears to have been hit by a train on an abandoned railway line. But there hasn't been a train there in more than fifty years.So what killed the old man? As Nightingale investigates, he realises that there are dark forces at work and his own life is on the line.Tracks is about 11,000 words, about thirty-five pages. Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an ebook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels.
38 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 17, 2014
8 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Leather
248 books1,533 followersStephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. For much of 2011 his self-published eBooks - including The Bestseller, The Basement, Once Bitten and Dreamer's Cat - dominated the UK eBook bestseller lists and sold more than half a million copies. The Basement topped the Kindle charts in the UK and the US, and in total he has sold more than two million eBooks. His bestselling book The Chinaman was filmed as The Foreigner, starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan and grossing more than $100 million.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 7, 2023
Justice Seeked
This is a 4.5 🌟 read rounded ⬆️ to 5 🌟.
Another superb supernatural mystery featuring Jack Nightingale - this time in the U.S. Revenge is a dish best served old, in this case.
This is a 4.5 🌟 read rounded ⬆️ to 5 🌟.
Another superb supernatural mystery featuring Jack Nightingale - this time in the U.S. Revenge is a dish best served old, in this case.
February 6, 2015
A pot-boiler...
An elderly man with dementia leaves his home in the middle of the night wearing only his pyjamas. His body is found the next day, 7 miles away, smashed and mangled on the tracks of a long-disused railway line. The police are baffled, so his daughter asks for help from private investigator Jack Nightingale.
Apparently Jack Nightingale has appeared in several books and stories before this one, but this works fine as a standalone. He appears to get his cases via a mysterious Mrs Steadman who contacts him on the astral plane. He is British but in this story is working in America. The mysterious death has happened in a town in Utah, bordering the Navajo Nation territories. So it's not a huge surprise that the supernatural occurrences come courtesy of medicine men, cursed wampum, evil spirits, etc., (though perhaps a little surprising that a Native American spirit should be impersonating a train...)
I'm afraid this is a bit of a pot-boiler - I'd reckon roughly zero effort went into it. The whole Native American bit reads like a Brit who knows nothing so just throws out a few clichés he's picked up from old pulp fiction or cowboy films. The fear factor is non-existent, largely because there's no attempt at creating atmosphere. The writing is workmanlike, though one can't help but feel a quick read-through before pressing 'Publish' would have enabled him to eliminate the worst of the errors - such as describing the dress and hairstyle of a character twice, differently, in the same scene. It left me baffled as to how the medicine man's two pigtails had turned into one ponytail - not to mention a complete change of clothing - and even more baffled as to why no-one had noticed this miraculous transformation happening! That was really the only truly spooky part, I'm afraid...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
An elderly man with dementia leaves his home in the middle of the night wearing only his pyjamas. His body is found the next day, 7 miles away, smashed and mangled on the tracks of a long-disused railway line. The police are baffled, so his daughter asks for help from private investigator Jack Nightingale.
Apparently Jack Nightingale has appeared in several books and stories before this one, but this works fine as a standalone. He appears to get his cases via a mysterious Mrs Steadman who contacts him on the astral plane. He is British but in this story is working in America. The mysterious death has happened in a town in Utah, bordering the Navajo Nation territories. So it's not a huge surprise that the supernatural occurrences come courtesy of medicine men, cursed wampum, evil spirits, etc., (though perhaps a little surprising that a Native American spirit should be impersonating a train...)
I'm afraid this is a bit of a pot-boiler - I'd reckon roughly zero effort went into it. The whole Native American bit reads like a Brit who knows nothing so just throws out a few clichés he's picked up from old pulp fiction or cowboy films. The fear factor is non-existent, largely because there's no attempt at creating atmosphere. The writing is workmanlike, though one can't help but feel a quick read-through before pressing 'Publish' would have enabled him to eliminate the worst of the errors - such as describing the dress and hairstyle of a character twice, differently, in the same scene. It left me baffled as to how the medicine man's two pigtails had turned into one ponytail - not to mention a complete change of clothing - and even more baffled as to why no-one had noticed this miraculous transformation happening! That was really the only truly spooky part, I'm afraid...
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
February 6, 2017
4/85, 4 ****
Another short, fun read.
Another short, fun read.
December 23, 2014
Always 5 stars for Jack, would be more if they were available. Although this short story was great, it was just a little nibble to ease the appetite while we wait for #6. In January. Stephen promised! I miss Jack!!!
May 5, 2015
A short story, this time the enemy ois not the usual demon but a revenge god of the navajo. Thirty years ago a group of friends raped and murdered a Navajo girl. All are old and one lets slip the secret. This seals their doom.
September 6, 2015
This is an exciting Jack Nightingale short story - this time the darkside takes a native american twist- great stuff!
May 19, 2016
A great story, ideal for a lazy day.
December 18, 2014
Year another brilliant jack nightingale short story
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews