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Maxwell's Train
Burnt-out intellectual Harry Maxwell, employed as a cleaner for the Washington Terminal Company, becomes involved in a plot to steal a U.S. Treasury currency shipment from the railroad, a scheme that embroils him with the World People's Army, an international terrorist organization
273 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hyde
38 books44 followersChristopher Hyde has worked as a researcher, editor, TV interviewer specialising in stories of technology, intelligence and the environment.
He also writes using the pseudonyms
A.J. Holt.
Paul Christopher.
He also writes using the pseudonyms
A.J. Holt.
Paul Christopher.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 8, 2023
Hyde wrote some mean thrillers among other genre fiction in the 80s and Maxwell's Train makes clear why he was a best seller at the time. Now approaching 40, Maxwell's Train still excites, but also exemplifies how much the USA has changed over the years, making this a time capsule of a sort.
Our main protagonist, Maxwell, is hitting 40 and does not have much to show for it. He 'turned on and dropped out' in the 60s, leaving college to basically explore communes and such, and eventually became a 'courier' of illicit substances into the US. While he escaped with his life after one fiasco, he now works in D.C. cleaning Amtrak trains; basically, going nowhere fast. One day, however, he finds out that the Federal Reserve uses Amtrak to transport millions of dollars from the mint in D.C. to NYC on a regular basis. While obviously well protected, he and a fellow traveler decide that robbing the train would not only make them rich, it would put some meaning in their life.
After weeks of planning and so forth, they finally concoct a brilliant plan to rob the train. Unfortunately, some very nasty terrorists also have eyes on the same train. This starts with a brief prologue where special agents in England are discussing a gathering of nasty terrorists who suddenly disappear from the radar. You guessed it-- these are the group that also has plans on the train. Worse for Maxwell and company, they also have plans to release some homebrewed biological warfare agents on the train as well...
What Hyde puts together here is pure adventure on rails. He mentions in the afterward that he has travelled every mile of track where the story takes place and it definitely shows. I am also a train aficionado, having ridden Amtrak many times coast to coast, but also extensively in Europe and Asia among other places. I love me a good train story!
What makes this such a time capsule has to do with the terror aspect. When this was published in 1985, the US had not had a major foreign terrorist attack on its soil. The belief that none would occur lead to the US government having no plans to deal with such an event, which was exploited by the terrorists in the story. Yes, there was an agency that looked into such an event, but this was largely staffed with ex FBI agents and such who were being put out to pasture. My have times changed!
Hyde shows his stuff here, giving the reader a fast paced, relentless story that is about as realistic as it comes. Like train stories? Read this and give yourself a treat! After 40 years, it still holds up as a great thriller. 4 stars!!
Our main protagonist, Maxwell, is hitting 40 and does not have much to show for it. He 'turned on and dropped out' in the 60s, leaving college to basically explore communes and such, and eventually became a 'courier' of illicit substances into the US. While he escaped with his life after one fiasco, he now works in D.C. cleaning Amtrak trains; basically, going nowhere fast. One day, however, he finds out that the Federal Reserve uses Amtrak to transport millions of dollars from the mint in D.C. to NYC on a regular basis. While obviously well protected, he and a fellow traveler decide that robbing the train would not only make them rich, it would put some meaning in their life.
After weeks of planning and so forth, they finally concoct a brilliant plan to rob the train. Unfortunately, some very nasty terrorists also have eyes on the same train. This starts with a brief prologue where special agents in England are discussing a gathering of nasty terrorists who suddenly disappear from the radar. You guessed it-- these are the group that also has plans on the train. Worse for Maxwell and company, they also have plans to release some homebrewed biological warfare agents on the train as well...
What Hyde puts together here is pure adventure on rails. He mentions in the afterward that he has travelled every mile of track where the story takes place and it definitely shows. I am also a train aficionado, having ridden Amtrak many times coast to coast, but also extensively in Europe and Asia among other places. I love me a good train story!
What makes this such a time capsule has to do with the terror aspect. When this was published in 1985, the US had not had a major foreign terrorist attack on its soil. The belief that none would occur lead to the US government having no plans to deal with such an event, which was exploited by the terrorists in the story. Yes, there was an agency that looked into such an event, but this was largely staffed with ex FBI agents and such who were being put out to pasture. My have times changed!
Hyde shows his stuff here, giving the reader a fast paced, relentless story that is about as realistic as it comes. Like train stories? Read this and give yourself a treat! After 40 years, it still holds up as a great thriller. 4 stars!!
December 5, 2019
Abandoned at 20%. Won't be restarting. Not a bad concept though.
I'm so over most books written in the 80s. They're like cars and hairstyles from that era. What were we thinking?!
I'm so over most books written in the 80s. They're like cars and hairstyles from that era. What were we thinking?!
dnf
February 2, 2024DNF after 25 pages. This book has been sitting on my shelf for many years and have no idea how it even got there. After finally giving it a go I knew right away that this is not the book for me. I might like this type of story in movie format but not in book format, at least not the way this was written. Too bad.
June 3, 2022
One of the fascinating things about reading espionage and crime thrillers from several decades ago is how prescient they can be about real-world shadow war. It’s easy to forget that before the 1990s there had never been a major terrorist attack on North American soil, and Americans were still rather innocent to the threat. The 1984 thriller Maxwell’s Train, by Christopher Hyde, is an older novel that anticipates this possibility and serves up a scary scenario that could yet prove prophetic.
The story begins as a heist novel. Harry Maxwell, once a bright, idealistic young man with big dreams from a good family, fell in with the wrong crowd and spent 7 years trafficking drugs, only getting out when he and his partner in crime Daniel were nearly killed in a ripoff. At age 35, he finds himself working as a lowly Amtrak car cleaner, with no prospects and not much to live for. Then one day he notices a strange car attached to a train, and learns that it transports freshly printed bills from the Federal Reserve — some thirty-five million dollars worth, to be exact. This is enough to get Harry excited about life again, so he assembles a crew with his buddy Daniel and two other under-achievers with nothing to lose, and they begin planning the heist of the century.
The planning stage of the heist seemed rather rushed for a job of this magnitude, but there is enough descriptive detail to keep things plausible. The plan is rather ingenious, as it entails using a coffin to bring one of the men and supplies onto the train and to offload the loot, and the gassing of the security guards in the money car through a ventilation shaft. I don’t want to spoil things for you, but let’s just say the thieves get quite a shock when they force open the car door and see what’s inside.
At this point the novel transitions to the main plot: a hijacking by seven of the nastiest international terrorists in the business--veterans of the European Baader-Meinhof group, Libyan special forces and the Japanese Red Army Faction, among others. The leader of the crew, and the most lethal of them all, is the beautiful blonde German, Annalise Shenker. In addition to the huge cash haul, the train is carrying five international VIPs and is rigged with enough weapons of mass destruction to ensure that no one does anything rash.
About halfway through the story shifts gears again, as we are introduced to several new characters, including an elderly German World War II veteran visiting the country where he was kept as a POW, an old heiress who spends her time travelling North America by rail, and a spunky 15 year old runaway, all of whom are boarding an ill-fated train for Montreal. This is where I started to roll my eyes a bit, as it started to feel like one of those corny old “Poseidon Adventure” disaster movies where we are introduced to a variety of quirky characters before catastrophe brings them together. But it actually turned out to be very entertaining, as a motley crew of clever amateurs devise tactics, improvise weapons and muster up the courage to fight the terrorists. The last 50 or 60 pages were particularly riveting, as the protagonists make their move against the terrorists, the terrorists make their move against the passengers and threaten to unleash mass terror, government forces make their move against both, and the train rolls toward a hellish climax in the remote northern Canadian wilderness.
I was very impressed with Christopher Hyde’s smooth story-telling and his technical knowledge; he knows the layouts of trains, the workings of the rail system and Canadian geography in intricate detail, and makes them integral to the story. By novel’s end I felt like I’d ridden along with the passengers on their terrifying adventure, and was totally absorbed. This was an outstanding thriller, up there with the best in the genre. This was my first book by Mr. Hyde, but it definitely won’t be my last.
The story begins as a heist novel. Harry Maxwell, once a bright, idealistic young man with big dreams from a good family, fell in with the wrong crowd and spent 7 years trafficking drugs, only getting out when he and his partner in crime Daniel were nearly killed in a ripoff. At age 35, he finds himself working as a lowly Amtrak car cleaner, with no prospects and not much to live for. Then one day he notices a strange car attached to a train, and learns that it transports freshly printed bills from the Federal Reserve — some thirty-five million dollars worth, to be exact. This is enough to get Harry excited about life again, so he assembles a crew with his buddy Daniel and two other under-achievers with nothing to lose, and they begin planning the heist of the century.
The planning stage of the heist seemed rather rushed for a job of this magnitude, but there is enough descriptive detail to keep things plausible. The plan is rather ingenious, as it entails using a coffin to bring one of the men and supplies onto the train and to offload the loot, and the gassing of the security guards in the money car through a ventilation shaft. I don’t want to spoil things for you, but let’s just say the thieves get quite a shock when they force open the car door and see what’s inside.
At this point the novel transitions to the main plot: a hijacking by seven of the nastiest international terrorists in the business--veterans of the European Baader-Meinhof group, Libyan special forces and the Japanese Red Army Faction, among others. The leader of the crew, and the most lethal of them all, is the beautiful blonde German, Annalise Shenker. In addition to the huge cash haul, the train is carrying five international VIPs and is rigged with enough weapons of mass destruction to ensure that no one does anything rash.
About halfway through the story shifts gears again, as we are introduced to several new characters, including an elderly German World War II veteran visiting the country where he was kept as a POW, an old heiress who spends her time travelling North America by rail, and a spunky 15 year old runaway, all of whom are boarding an ill-fated train for Montreal. This is where I started to roll my eyes a bit, as it started to feel like one of those corny old “Poseidon Adventure” disaster movies where we are introduced to a variety of quirky characters before catastrophe brings them together. But it actually turned out to be very entertaining, as a motley crew of clever amateurs devise tactics, improvise weapons and muster up the courage to fight the terrorists. The last 50 or 60 pages were particularly riveting, as the protagonists make their move against the terrorists, the terrorists make their move against the passengers and threaten to unleash mass terror, government forces make their move against both, and the train rolls toward a hellish climax in the remote northern Canadian wilderness.
I was very impressed with Christopher Hyde’s smooth story-telling and his technical knowledge; he knows the layouts of trains, the workings of the rail system and Canadian geography in intricate detail, and makes them integral to the story. By novel’s end I felt like I’d ridden along with the passengers on their terrifying adventure, and was totally absorbed. This was an outstanding thriller, up there with the best in the genre. This was my first book by Mr. Hyde, but it definitely won’t be my last.
March 29, 2012
With the tension and action, this would have been a fun movie from the mid '80's, when this came out. When Harry Maxwell and three buddies decide to rob a Federal Reserve bank on a train, and somebody beat's you to it. Then you find out the train has been taken over by terrorists, it's not going to be a good day. Then Harry, with help from a few passengers, decide to try to take the train back themselves.
Hyde really gives you his idea back then, that the U.S. wasn't ready for a terrorist attack on their home turf. All the different jurisdictions trying to make a decision.
This was an entertaining thriller.....and a fun ride. :)
Hyde really gives you his idea back then, that the U.S. wasn't ready for a terrorist attack on their home turf. All the different jurisdictions trying to make a decision.
This was an entertaining thriller.....and a fun ride. :)
August 30, 2010
This isn't the great american novel, but I'm becoming a Hyde fan. It certainly would be in the un-put-down-able list started by "the next best book club."
March 12, 2020
I pulp fiction thriller where and group of friends become would be thieves and hatch a plan to rob a federal reserve train. However, their plans are disrupted when terrorist cell hijacks the train intent on staling the money themselves!
It's not a bad book and would likely be enjoyed most by train enthusiasts a s there is way to much desecration of train carriages, switching systems and train lines.
It's not a bad book and would likely be enjoyed most by train enthusiasts a s there is way to much desecration of train carriages, switching systems and train lines.
April 9, 2018
2,5
Zdecydowanie trochę to trwało, ale w końcu udało mi się dobrnąć do końca. Jednak nie jest to zła książka - po prostu zupełnie nie dla mnie. Miała kilka wątków za dużo, i miałam wrażenie, że nie wszystkie zostały zamknięte... ale marzyłam już, żeby w końcu skończyć ją czytać, więc przyznaję się, że mogłam przegapić dwie wymiany zdań.
Zdecydowanie trochę to trwało, ale w końcu udało mi się dobrnąć do końca. Jednak nie jest to zła książka - po prostu zupełnie nie dla mnie. Miała kilka wątków za dużo, i miałam wrażenie, że nie wszystkie zostały zamknięte... ale marzyłam już, żeby w końcu skończyć ją czytać, więc przyznaję się, że mogłam przegapić dwie wymiany zdań.
May 4, 2013
A novel about a group of criminals who sneak a cache of weapons onboard a passenger train in a plot to rob it. Terrorists take over the train, and the robbers with their unknown arsenal are the only people who can stop the terrorists. The set up is great, and the book opens with a quote from the lead criminal's Playboy magazine interview after the fact. My expectations for this novel were very high, maybe too high, and lasted over a long period of time before I finally read it, so maybe I set myself up to be disappointed. There is a lot of action. The author gives a realistic potrayal of conditions on the train once basic services have been turned off or disrupted. The ending was not quite what I thought it would be. Still, an enjoyable read. Another one for "adventure on a train" fans.
June 16, 2013
Fabulous book! This book is a bit hard to find, but worth the read if you can get your hands on a copy. What really hits home is the fact that this author managed to touch on our lack of preparedness when it comes to a terrorist attack, especially in light of the tragedies we've seen over the years beginning with 9/11. It also brings to light that, sadly, we are just as ill prepared today, and could see similar on a train as happened in this book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews