The Necropolis Railway

Jim Stringer #1

by Andrew Martin

The Necropolis Railway - A Novel of Murder, Mystery and Steam (Jim Stringer)

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Historical Mystery, London

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like all the Jim Stringer books, in fact if I met a real life Jim Stringer, I'm sure I'd like him. He's got that down-to-earth lack of pretence that makes him a believable character trying to make his way in the world. He gets things done with a minimum of fuss and without showing off to the world how wonderful he is. The fact that his cases are set to the background of railways is even better as I like travelling by train and think it's almost the best way to arrive anywhere, a gradual introduction to the place you're visiting.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from Badelynge
The Necropolis Railway introduces the character of Jim Stringer onto the Edwardian mystery stage. Stringer starts out as a fairly wet behind the ears young bloke fresh out of Baytown (that's Robin Hood's Bay to us tourists). He's dead set on making a life and a career for himself on his beloved railways. His head is full of the romance of the railways, the rose coloured ideal straight out of the Boy's Own Paper or his revered Railway Magazine. His first job as a porter at the sleepy little station at Grosmont is a severe disappointment, being both the completely wrong career line with no prospect of crossing over to engine driver, and seemingly no more exciting duties than primping the flowers or cleaning out the khazies. One day he meets a mysterious stranger who promises to get him onto the right track among the bustle and prospect of London, cleaning the engines that ply the funeral run from Waterloo to Brookwood Cemetery . Before long he's summoned down south to begin his new life but all is not quite as it seems. He steps into the shoes of a predecessor who was very likely murdered. Suspects abound and his life is made doubly difficult by being labelled a company spy by his workmates. With most of his dreams shattered Jim tries to unravel the mystery before he ends up as dead the last bloke, while trying to woo the girl of his dreams (his landlady).
Andrew Martin's writing is crammed packed with period detail and the day to day minutiae of the railways, colourful characters, a complicated mystery that doesn't seem to want to lie down with the other corpses and a coming of age character piece. The obvious glamour of steam engines clashes with the harsher realities of Edwardian London. It's probably not going to be everybody's cup of tea and some of the vernacular is probably going to annoy some folks but if you love anything to do with steam locomotives, Edwardian England and mystery stories you just might enjoy it as much as I did.

[Michelle Dockrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, and had a lot of what appeals to me in period mysteries; the feel of being taken to another world. The blurbs on the back include "loaded with railway lore" and "crackles with the idiom and slang of the period." And that was the problem-- it crackled so much I couldn't actually tell what the hell was going on, sometimes. When terms aren't defined, you can normally gather them by context, but when the context of the word in question is loaded with still *more* undefined terms, there's little to go by.

It also made the biggest error that mysteries can make, as far as I'm concerned-- leaving key elements of the plot until the ending reveal. I don't read mysteries just to guess the solution, but it's still irritating and frustrating to have facts show up after everything is all over.

I don't think I'll be buying any more in this series.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a smart and inventive Edwardian thriller, set on a railway line whose sole purpose is a perfect fit for a thriller - the trains transported the dead and the grieving to a large cemetery outside of London. (This was apparently a real line, the cemetery was Brockwood and the trains departed from Waterloo). There is murder, skulduggery, a gang of sinister characters and a young apprentice whose eyes are opened to the world.

Unfortunately, unless you happen to have an incredibly deep interest in trains, it’s a difficult novel to wrap yourself up in. The narrator has an obsessive interest in engines and railways, to such an extent that he is actually accused of being boring on the subject. (I’m trying to think of narrators of other books I might have read who are accused of being dull within the text, so far nothing comes to mind.) And so it’s a book which can really be hard going for those of us not so turned-on by locomotives.

There are undoubtedly good things about this book and I don’t think I’ve read a thriller quite like it, but at points reading it was like propelling a handcart up a hill – a lot of effort and struggle.

[Annerlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the historical atmosphere from the 'golden age' of steam, but found the mystery confusing and slow. There was way too much 'train' jargon for a lay person to understand (the book is obviously written with train enthusiasts in mind) and I found the main character naive, pretentious and boring. I wasn't sure how he managed to solve the murder mystery - there wasn't much logical build up, unless I missed something fundamental. I nearly gave up at 40%, but saw it through to the end after all. I must admit that the final scene had real atmosphere and the twist at the end was unexpected, but not really believable.

In conclusion: some of the imagery and atmosphere will stay with me, but overall the book was too muddled and didn't live up to my expectations.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin is first book in a series starring railway man Jim Stringer. It is billed on its cover as "an ingenious and atmospheric thriller" (Daily Express, London) and "a masterful novel about a mad, clanking fog-bound world (Simon Winchester, author of The Professor & the Madman), but quite honestly ingenious, thriller and masterful aren't the words that come to mind. Atmosphere....now I will admit that it's got plenty of that. There are bits where the atmosphere is perfect--the reader is plopped down in Edwardian England and it feels right. But then there's that dream-like, misty-edged, through-the-looking-glass atmosphere that makes the reader stop and flip back through several pages, look up, and say to oneself, "What the heck just happened there?" It doesn't help that all sorts of unfamiliar terms (mostly railway, but not all) are thrown about like everyone knows an encyclopedia's worth of railway jargon.

The story is, on the surface, an interesting and inventive one. It's 1903 and Jim Stringer, a butcher's son from Yorkshire, dreams of being an express driver--he do love him some speed. His dad would prefer that he follow in his footsteps, but sees the trains in his son's eyes and agrees to railway work...as a porter. But Stringer meets Rowland Smith, a man with connections to the London and South Western company, and it looks like he's on his way to fulfilling his dream.

He heads to London where he meets nothing but trouble. He isn't assigned to the section of the railway he expects. Instead, he's going to be serving on engines that transports coffins along the "graveyard line." And his railway mates aren't--matey, that is. He's not sure if they just don't like him because he seems to have an "in" with the bosses or if they think he's there to spy on them or because he's come from the country and doesn't fit in with their ways. And then he discovers that his predecessor just disappeared....and there seem to be an unusual amount of railway deaths related to the Necropolis Railway. The more he hears about his predecessor, the more he wants to find out what happened to him....and his questions and investigations soon put his life in danger. Will he find out the truth before he receives his own one-way ticket on the graveyard train?

When I saw this book at the Friends of the Library Bookstore and I read the synopsis, I was instantly intrigued. I wish I could say that the book lived up to its promise--but it didn't. The best parts were the atmosphere (the good, historical atmosphere) and the last-minute twist at the end. And the few good quotes I was able to glean. The negatives: 1) Jim Stringer really isn't a character that I ever got terribly interested in. I kept reading because I wanted to finish the book, not because I just had to know what happened. 2) I hate ambiguous endings. Yes, we find out who did it. But will justice be served? Who knows. What's in store for Stringer? Beats me. 3) Railway jargon out the wazoo. Unfamiliar terms are okay as long as they're explained--either overtly or through context--and the reader's not inundated with them.

Overall: Decent mystery buried in the weird, dream-like atmosphere and excessive railway terms. Okay, but not terrific for two and a half stars.

This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Tilda Pinto · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Necropolis Railway had such promise. And it’s just my luck to get two 2-star books in a row. The title is what grabbed me. I picked this up in a second-hand book shop, not knowing anything about the book, but was just pulled in by the title. I really like the word ‘necropolis’. I’m really disappointed that this didn’t live up to my expectations.

The characters were uninteresting, I couldn’t really keep straight who was who. No one had any redeeming features, and they all blended into one. Therefore I didn’t really care who died because I didn’t even know who they were.

There was so much railway jargon I didn’t even understand a lot of the scene-setting stuff. I had no idea what any of it meant so I sort of glazed over all of the railway bits. And I’m not an idiot, I can usually infer meaning from context but no chance here.

The dialogue was really hard to follow. Every conversation seemed to start in the middle, and people seemed to make random comments that I couldn’t make sense of.

The conclusion was a stretch. There was an attempt at a twist but it was pretty random and circumstantial. Jim thinks of himself as a detective but the twist was based on him being in the right place at the right time. There were too many secrets kept from the reader so the unfolding mystery seemed random and incomplete. We were just being told what was going on rather than discovering it ourselves. I also didn’t even care because I had no relationship with the characters.

I found that the whole book was really lacking in detail where it mattered (the story) and had far too much detail where it didn’t matter (the train stuff). Even other characters told Jim he was boring when he was talking about train stuff so I don’t know how the author didn’t get the hint.

Also there was a really weird prostitute scene that didn’t add anything to the story, seemed really out of character for Jim and I have no idea why it was left in the story. An attempt at smut in an obviously train-enthusiast book was odd.

You might like The Necropolis Railway more than I did if you’re into trains and you know the jargon - at least more of the book would make sense to you. But otherwise, don’t be fooled by the exciting title. I’m now off to find a book about a Necropolis Railway that actually fulfils the brief.

[Ade Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost always have a little light reading on the go, invariably detective stuff. This, my introduction to Martin, is fine, the writing wuality high. Faber think so too which is why the publish him.
I note a lot of negative reviews. I sympathise. The books are slow and thickly textured, and very thin on plot or narrative suspense. The quality lies in the beautiful depiction of Edwardian atmospheres, all held together by the railways themselves, the power and smoke. Very amusing too.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Martin has hit upon a rich and evocative setting for his series of historical crime novels. The Edwardian railway system, at the peak of its extent and influence, with its own particular industrial subcultures and communities provides the crime novelist with a complex and fascinating backdrop against which to plot murders, extortion and all sorts of criminal behaviour. Add to that the clanking wagons, filthy steam engines and the buccaneering adventure capitalism on which the Victorian and Edwardian railways were built, and you have a perfect recipe for an atmospheric story. This first book in the Jim Stringer series sees our eponymous hero working on the ill-fated Necropolis Railway built to serve the Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey: a line designed with the sole purpose of carrying corpses and mourners. What better setting for murky goings-on and amateur detection?

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you love Victorian rail history this book will make you a very happy person. If like me your more of hmmm let’s look at the next exhibit then this is a decent enough crime story with a steam engine obsession.

[Peter Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Necropolis Railway A Novel of Murder, Mystery and Steam

This was a nice easy read. We are introduced to young Jim Stringer at the beginning of this book. By a bit of good fortune he meets an influential stranger (the dapper Mr Rowland-Smith) who is able to offer Jim an opportunity to fulfil his dream of becoming a steam engine driver. With Smith's offer, Jim is able to leave Yorkshire and move to London to take up a position as a steam engine cleaner with the London and South Western Railway in the company's workshops at Nine Elms in the London Borough of Wandsworth near Waterloo Station. Engine cleaning is the bottom of the rung that leads up to being a steam engine fireman and eventually a driver. Jim's first job is cleaning the two locomotives used to pull the funeral trains for the Necropolis Railway.

However, there are several clouds hanging over Jim's new employment:

1. His predecessor, Henry Taylor, was murdered; and

2. Jim's fellow workers on the "Half Link" have poor Jim tagged as a stooge or snitch for Rowland-Smith and the workshops "Governor" (the Fat Controller?).

3. These scoundrels were probably involved in poor Henry's demise.

Henry Taylor it turns out was not the only murder associated with Nine Elms and the Necropolis Railway.

The rest of the book is Jim's naration of his hunt for the perpetrators of these dastardly wrongs. Along the way he learns the rudimentary skills of the detective, fights off the threats to his life and limb from the "villains" of the Half Link and falls in love with his land-lady. How does he fare? Read the book and see!

Andrew Martin has developed an interesting plot that is main more entertaining by the colour and ambience he paints from Edwardian London - the use of colloquial slang is a nice touch even if it makes some of the text difficult to follow. I like crime fiction and, like Jim, have a life-long fascination with trains (especially steam trains) so this book was clearly made for me. I look forward to reading the rest of the Jim Stringer series. I hope we find out whether Jim gets to keep the girl :-)

I recommend this book.

Peter

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I approached this book with a totally open mind and my only expectations, were a hope that the Author would at the very least create a rich "Conan Doyle'esqe" vision of turn of the twentieth century London. After finishing the book, I can honestly say that for the first time in as long as I can remember that I have thoroughly enjoyed an historical novel that actually sacrifices plot for beautiful period enviromental, social and most obviously technical detail. The industrialised London that the Author describes is incredibly well rendered, but without a feeling of suffocating detail. Young Jim, the central character is beautifully conceived. A young, eager Steam enthusiast. He adds much passive detail himself to those London streets with his unconscious "Northerner Abroad" bias. His passion for the age of steam is infectious to any reader with even just a mild interest in the subject matter. As for the plot, well.... What plot? It may sound strange, but the very basic and purely functional and uninspiring, conspiracy plot, comes a distant second to the comprehensive depiction of period and characters, without, in my opinion, any detriment to the reading experience.

In summary then. For those that enjoy an intriguing, edge of the seat historical crime thriller, this may be one to avoid. However, for those who wish to lose themselves in several hours of sumptuously imagined period detail in the company of a sometimes very funny narrator with a passion for genuinely interesting steam locomotive history, without being overwhelmed by boring detail; this book is highly recommended.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this atmospheric historical detective story and found it beautifully written, dark and witty both at once. I also liked the fact that the hero is such an unlikely detective, a young railway worker who starts out as a toilet cleaner before he gets a break and is allowed to clean steam engines - on a line which goes to a large cemetery, hence the novel's title. Some reviewers have complained that there is too much bewildering detail about the intricacies of working on a railway in the Edwardian period, but that is just what I loved. I'll definitely be reading more of Jim Stringer's adventures in the future!

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I gave this book a try, but I found it deadly dull. Maybe it's because I don't care much about trains and this book did not instill in me a thirst to learn more. I found the narrator a pompous little hypocrite and I hated the narration. Found it difficult to follow, disjointed, and unclear. The "mystery" was hard to get into, and someone who personally loves more characters!, I had the hardest time keeping everyone straight. And by the end I figured it out it wasn't even worth keeping them all distinct anyways.

The action, what was there of it, was also a little on the ludicrous side. Will not read the others in this series.

[Tamara]

Not going to finish this - a shame, because trains! Meticulously detailed trains and train labour in the late Victorian period, which is delightful. Unfortunately, that's it. It's just totally incoherent otherwise. I haven't the foggiest clue what is going on, how our totally boring hero suddenly decided he needs to find a killer, who's been killed, what the factions are, who he's working for, etc, etc. I mean, seriously, I just don't know what is happening, even as I am reading it, and not in a good way. So, life's too short. I will find other books about trains.

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now this is weird. I read the second in the series first and quite enjoyed it but coming to the first book I found it irritating, slow and frankly dull. Too much railway jargon/references and not enough action to make me want to read on. I know it's set in 1903 but the prose style is pedestrian and I found it a real effort to continue. Can't recommend it and probably I'd give it a 1.5 rating if that were possible.

[Fiona Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable murder mystery based on the rail way that took bodies from London to Brookwood cemetery.

[A. B. Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the character work in this story, and I learned a lot about the railways in the early 20th century.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first novel in the still-ongoing Jim Stringer series. It is also an unapologetic love-letter to life at the footplate. If you don't like trains, you probably should give this a miss. It's similar to the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series in terms of detail and research. I didn't find this off-putting, though others may. It's very much a Boys' Own style of writing - though given that this pretty accurately describes the narrator's maturity level, it's fine.

Other than the detailed train info - though I'm sure there's a trainspotter somewhere who's picked Martin up on some minute errors - the novel is a brief excursion into the life of a young bloke in Edwardian London, pursuing a life in the steam trade. This love of trains, however, sees him mixed up in murders, romance and burial ground schemes.

The end couple of chapters strike me as being very much in the manner of older style mysteries - there's a real sense of AHA! going on when the lie of the land is revealed, though I won't spoil them. I can't tell if it's intentional or if it's a weakness in Martin's writing, but it seems to work. Reading Fleming these days it's possible to enjoy the action of the story while being tickled by the construction of some parts of it, or the quaint nature of some technologies or methods or narration, and I think the same applies here.

If you're not into trains you could pass this by - but I suspect you'd be missing out. This isn't heavyweight literature, but it seems a lot of love has gone into the creation of Jim Stringer, so I think I'll be checking out the following (six, seven?) books.

[Codex · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ominous tale set in London during the early 1900s with a persistently foreboding atmosphere. It describes the events that unfold over the course of a few weeks when a young man starts his career in the railways as an engine cleaner, with eyes set firmly on becoming a driver on the “footplate.” Things don’t go quite the way he envisaged, and he finds himself at the centre of intrigue and misplaced animosity.

The author captures the mood of the period well and manages to immerse the reader in the bygone era of steam and locomotives. That is, for those who can relate to steam trains at all; I can imagine younger readers finding this book a bit “strange.” At times the use of period English is sufficiently unfamiliar to require some consideration; however, this just underlines the author’s careful attention to accurate detail.

The author further succeeds in maintaining suspense throughout the book without obviously leading escalation. Some descriptions are so matter-of-fact that they induce an unsettling feeling—a style of writing “between the lines” not readily achieved and deserving of praise.

Of interest is the fact that a “necropolis” train actually existed, which makes this book part historical record.

[Matt Musselman · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Beyond the gardens were some tennis players . . . Not at all good at the game, but they were trying their best and my heart was filled with good wishes for them. . . ."

As I neared the end of this book, I struggled with how I would describe it to others, and then the author himself dropped this line into my head, which summed up a lot of my feelings quite well.

Necropolis Railway is sincere, honest, well-researched, and very obviously a labour of love. The protagonist is likeable, the Edwardian setting is interesting, the railway knowledge enlightening, and the love interest sweet and realistic. But the story itself is simply not very good. It has a lot of the ingredients of the classic mystery formula, but lacks any sense of forward momentum, let alone any cliffhangers, the suspense was not particularly suspenseful, and the conflicts typically resolved by deus ex machina.

I'm happy for the author. I hope he continues, and I assume his subsequent books get better with the honing of his craft, but this first book is not really one I can recommend to people other than hardcore trainophiles or London history nuts, sadly.

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must confess that I purchased The Necropolis Railway almost solely for its title (which is brilliant and probably the best thing about the novel.) A young Yorkshireman named Jim Stringer, who is obsessed with steam engines and railways (a bit like my toddler, actually!) is fortuitously given a job with the Great Western Railway in London. But when he actually arrives at his workplace, he finds a setting rife with mystery, murder and mayhem. For my tastes, Andrew Martin provided a bit too much information about early steam engines (I felt very sympathetic to Jim Stringer's landlady, who always seemed to zone out completely whenever Jim started talking to her about engines. And unfortunately, he provided a bit too little characterization. The plot was rather convoluted (or maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention), but I did enjoy the novel enough to have gotten at least the first two sequels. I'm hoping that they'll be a bit less heavy on the lore of the engine and bit better at making me care about the main character!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect that one of the things tat will influence the rating for this series of novels is how much of a railway wonk the reader is -- and being a bit of a railway wonk myself, I found myself enjoying this novel a great deal, what with its various railway minutiae from the start of the Edwardian era, and its detailing of the long defunct Necropolis Railway. Jim Stringer's a lively protagonist pulled into an unlikely trade for a butcher's son, in that his ambition to move up through the ranks in the railways is diverted into investigation of criminal doings on the railways. He also has a bit of a romance going with his landlady, but that's just a side element, and even so used to give Martin a chance to talk about the London Underground. I'm looking forward to further books in the series. I think a big plus here, too, is that I read this as an audiobook (my eyesight is currently rather bad, due to a detached retina) with a sterling performance by Hugh Walters, who delivers the text as a nice clip, in a lively manner, with just the right tinge of a Yorkshire accent.

[Dirck Lint · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's several things to recommend this book, although some of them may be considered warnings by some. Large in either heading is an excellent maintenance of a first-person voice, in which that person is occasionally given to early 20th century railway slang-- for someone whose child is a huge fan of Rev. Awdry's stories, this isn't an impediment, but a less indoctrinated person could have some trouble with it. There is also the interesting novelty of a mystery story without a detective, amateur, professional or otherwise, in the lead role. So many books in this genre rely on a willing, self-starting prod-nose or an investigator of long experience and deep cunning that a protagonist who isn't particularly interested in that sort of thing (at least to start) and for whom it's essentially a distraction from what he thinks is more important business is an interesting novelty. We hear that the past is a different country, and Martin does a fine job of conveying the now-alien nature of life in Edwardian England.

[Lizixer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first Jim Stringer and less assured than later books but Martin has a lot to do in order to establish his character, his period and shoehorn a lot of railway history in to boot. So the solving of the mystery does suddenly happen very fast and the denouement is a little surprising (and disappointing perhaps) compared to the long build up and the careful recreation of the Lower Marsh/Waterloo of Edwardian times and the tribute to the famous and short lived Necropolis railway.

I've compared later books to H G Wells in tone and I stick by that opinion. Persevere with Jim Stringer, he comes into his own as the books progress. Moreover, these books a welcome antidote to all that 'upstairs' DowntonAbbeyisation of Edwardian England, as Martin brings the world of the Edwardian working class to life.

[Ade Couper · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the 1st in a very popular series of books , which a few folk have recommended to me - & I'm not sure why.....

I found this difficult to get into for 2 main reasons : (1) , the main character (Jim Stringer , "Railway Detective") is frankly not at all interesting , & (2) frankly the mystery doesn't engage .

On the plus side it's competently written , with some quite good descriptions of the Waterloo engine-sheds which occasionally tend to the atmospheric , but if I read any more in this series I'll borrow from the library rather than buy .

[Tweedledum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really expect to ever want to read a book that included copious amounts of information about trains and their history. It was my Faber and Faber obsession that tempted me. Now I am completely hooked. Jim Stringer is an unlikely hero/ detective whose keen eye for anomalies and of course encyclopaedic railway knowledge saves the day. Based on the real extra-ordinary history of the necropolis railway in London the story races along. Jim meets the "missus" whose sensible outlook on life helps to keep him from too many flights of fancy.

[Melanie Tiernan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't really say much about this book as I only managed to get to page 135, it was dire, no it didn't make my flesh creep or my skin crawl as stated on the front cover. there doesn't seem to be much going on other than some not very nice men possibly killing a couple of others, I found the whole thing quite badly written and rather boring.

[Mundivagant · Rating 2 out of 5]

ooooh to be nearly buried alive in a
plush, velveteen coffin after receiving
a blow to the noggin due to the uncovering
of a cemetery bound, loco with motives
death conspiracy bandaged with soot and hot
chocolatey landlady love.<

*in all honesty = unexpectedly dull

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good plot and interesting setting; just found it difficult to work through the London-speak as an American.