Going Off The Rails

by Richard S. Brown

"An instant noir classic. Highly recommended." – Best Thrillers The year is 1958. Stan Ellis, a young reporter for a small-town Wisconsin newspaper, can't forget the call he got from a woman who claimed a man convicted of causing a train wreck four years before was falsely imprisoned. After a night of sleeplessness, he searches for the woman hoping to latch on to a big story. When he tracks her down, he finds she is the ex-wife of George Cashman, the train engineer who was operating the train that crashed. She identifies the man she believes sabotaged the train, but refuses to go to the authorities herself out of fear for her safety. She begs Stan to go instead and to ask them to open a new investigation. He agrees, not realizing that he is opening up something bigger and more dangerous than he ever anticipated.

217 pages, Paperback

Published December 29, 2020

About the author

Richard S. Brown worked for the U.S. Army for thirty years as a civilian human resource specialist. Now retired, he is an avid sports fan, a lover of history, and a model train enthusiast. Push Back Choson is his first novel, followed by a mystery thriller, Going Off The Rails. He has also written articles that appeared in Army magazine and Northwestern Lines, a railway historical society publication. Among current writers of fiction, his favorites include Stephen King, Ken Follett, David Poyer, Douglas Preston, and Brendan Dubois.

This author is also published under the name Richard Brown.

Reviews

[Cynthia Prosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. It reminded me of the old Perry Mason TV show except the main character was a small town reporter instead of a big city lawyer. There were parts of the story that I found extremely frustrating, particularly when it touched on domestic abuse (those parts made me furious). The story dealt with the reinvestigation of a railroad accident and the premise that the man convicted of the crime didn't do it. The investigation hit several snags along the way and I would fear that all hope was lost but then there would be another break and things would start moving again. The story was well paced and the action was believable, sometimes even too believable. Once into the story I was pulled along by the action which resulted in a relatively quick read. It also offered a nice peek into small town 1950s Midwest America, what happens in a small paper newsroom, and the snags that occur in the investigation of crime.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed!

The story was great. Kept my interest all the way through. Good interaction between characters. Details made following more interesting

[Phyllis Cipolloni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't as good as it could have been. I like a book that hookes me from the first 20 pages and it only gets better. This was just OK.

[Mike/Kaye Hurless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Fun to read, the characters are people you can relate to. The story builds excitement and suspense while showing what it was like before cell phones and computers.
I recommend it to anyone

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Early reviewer book] I enjoyed this book about a young small-town journalist who sets out to investigate and right a wrong. Due to the setting and Stan Ellis's right-minded but sometimes not very well thought out actions, I read him with a little bit of Jimmy Stewart/George Bailey feel. The characters were authentic, the plot believable and the writing clean. Even though it deals with a train wreck, wife-abuser and more, it's generally a gentler mystery. I hope this will be the first in a series.