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The Railway Detective #1
The Railway Detective
London 1851. With the opening of the Great Exhibition at hand, interest is mounting in the engineering triumphs of the railways, but not everyone feels like celebrating...
In an audacious attack, the London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, causing many casualties. Planned with military precision, this crime proves a challenge to Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck who fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
As Colbeck closes in on the criminal masterminds, events take an unexpected turn when the beautiful Madeleine, daughter of the injured train driver, becomes a pawn in the criminals' game. With time running out, good and evil, new and old, battle against each other. But will the long arm of the law have speed on its side?
The Railway Detective is an action-packed dip into murky 1850s London. Full of historical detail, unexpected twists and memorable characters, this is a mystery that will surprise you at every turn.
In an audacious attack, the London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, causing many casualties. Planned with military precision, this crime proves a challenge to Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck who fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
As Colbeck closes in on the criminal masterminds, events take an unexpected turn when the beautiful Madeleine, daughter of the injured train driver, becomes a pawn in the criminals' game. With time running out, good and evil, new and old, battle against each other. But will the long arm of the law have speed on its side?
The Railway Detective is an action-packed dip into murky 1850s London. Full of historical detail, unexpected twists and memorable characters, this is a mystery that will surprise you at every turn.
349 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
262 people are currently reading
2397 people want to read
About the author
Edward Marston
239 books466 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
A pseudonym used by Keith Miles
AKA A.E. Marston
Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
A pseudonym used by Keith Miles
AKA A.E. Marston
Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews
February 10, 2017
I must confess that of all the shitty books I’ve ever read, this one was the most astonishing to me. That’s because it was not a trashy romance novel, which tends to be the place from which I source my shitty literature. No, this is a serious historical detective novel, with a beautiful cover and an author who boasts, on the first page, of being a former chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association, and of being both prolific and highly successful – writing children’s books, literary criticism, plays and biographies. He says he’s been a full time writer for forty years. And since the book came out in 2004 and it’s 2017 I have to assume (unless he is a time traveller) that this was not his first effort. I shudder to think what that looked like. I can only assume it was written in crayons. Because this was quite honestly the most amateurish thing I have ever read that’s been actually published. I have read fan fiction that was better written than this.
Warning, some spoilers ahead. Although, frankly, I wouldn’t worry about it.
1. The writing is bad. There is no style to the narrative. Marston just plain comes out and tells you everything he wants you to know. There is zero trust on his part that you, the reader, have the mental ability to work anything out by yourself, notice anything that is more subtle than a rhinoceros charging straight at you or memorize anything that’s been said already. Consequently, things are laid out directly. Every person Marston wants you to like will be heaped with accolades from the moment you meet them. For example, Madeline, the love interest, is pretty, humble, modest, selfless, patient, devoted to her parent and intelligent. We don’t find this out by her ever saying or doing anything to prove this to us. No, the author just straight out tells you when you, the reader, meet Maddie. This happens with every character. It’s absurdly obvious whom the author likes and whom he dislikes. Bad people are comically bad, good people are angelically good. Nobody has any guile whatsoever, so they can’t even lie and pretend to be good but turn out to be bad, to make things interesting. Which leads me to my next point…
2. The characterisation is worse. So everybody is either a good guy or a bad guy, which is particularly terrible in crime fiction where there’s supposed to be some suspense about who really is evil. But the characterisation here is worse than that, because nobody behaves at all like real people do. A Victorian woman who flirted with a married man and turned out to have been made a fool of by him simply goes to Colbeck and tells him that she’s been humiliated and used. Rather than feel ashamed, for example, and hide this information, she just walks in, delivers her bit, leaves and never appears again. She’s not a person to Marston, she’s just a prop to deliver the next clue. A widow who receives desperately needed money from a criminal with whom her husband was involved tells Colbeck about the money and offers to hand it in, as it had been acquired through a criminal enterprise. Marston could have made her religious, for example, and given this as a motivation to behave in this way, but he doesn’t bother. Colbeck needs this piece of information so he gets it. The rest is irrelevant to the author.
3. The research is not well used. So, okay, clearly Marston knows some stuff about railways. And the book is called the Railway Detective, so that’s its shtick and he did his homework on that front. But I will be honest – he is terrible at imparting his love for railways to the reader. There is a romance to steam locomotives – they’re aesthetically pleasing, they make awesome sounds, the idea of a journey, the people who meet or part on railway platforms… it’s undeniable that there’s a magnetic appeal to scenes of that kind. Well, you can forget about that in this book. Once in a while Marston will stuff a chunk of dry, hard-to-understand-unless-you-know-the-lingo, information about railways, and that’s it. I guess if you are a huge fan of railways already you might get a kick out of those details, but I’m not sure that’s true. For someone who just likes trains, like me, this didn’t do the job. But there’s another aspect to research in which Marston has completely failed. And that’s research about Victorian mores and behaviours. I mean, ffs, what gentleman would ever tell a lady about a prostitute getting her neck sliced open?!? Hell, I’m pretty sure a policeman today wouldn’t tell someone that unless it were absolutely necessary, but in this novel it isn’t. No, Colbeck insists on Maddie staying in while he delivers this news to her father, just so she can hear it. WHY!? I’m actually curious to find out if it is even possible not to know that that would never fucking happen. At one point Maddie, a single, young, virginal Victorian woman, visits the Scotland Yard to tell the Inspector leading the case against the men who attacked her father, that she is unattached. Really, Marston?!? Honestly!? Or another time, a woman comes to Colbeck’s office, begins to cry and he puts an arm around her to console her. I mean really. Just… just no. No, Marston. No.
4. The detective’s process is atrocious. By far the most irritating aspect of a book riddled with irritating aspects, is Colbeck’s process of detection. I wouldn’t even really call it that. Essentially, Colbeck just knows. He knows things before they’re made clear by any clues, however vague, and he is never, ever wrong. He never pursues a wrong lead, because he instantly just knows to dismiss it, and he immediately knows who is innocent and guilty. He questions the railway policemen because he just knows the robbery of the railway had something to do with them (which is fair enough, that’s certainly what he should have done) but then he doesn’t bother to check the bankers because he trusts that they had nothing to do with it. At some point a report of a murder of a middle aged man comes in, and that instantly makes Colbeck sure that it’s the man he’d been looking for. Literally, that’s his only clue. The man was middle aged. In London. In the Devil’s Acre, which is like the slummiest of slum areas at the time. Then the bodies of dead men are identified by their clothing. It’s okay that that would be their first clue, but wouldn’t you check up on it? Wouldn’t you ask a person familiar with the deceased to identify the body? Colbeck doesn’t just know who the bodies are, but he also immediately knows why they were killed. Just out of thin air, he knows. His deductions are ridiculous:
Clue: The villain gave the widow of his victim £200 pounds.
Colbeck: He must be a gentleman.
In your head you go: Couldn't he just be a person who is in love with the woman? Or likes her? Or has some other sentimental attachment? Maybe was related to her? Or just someone who felt sorry for the widow?
Colbeck: Nope. It's a gentleman. Moving on.
Clue: The criminal commanded a team of men.
Colbeck: He was in the military.
In your head you go: Couldn't he just be a well organised man? A man with a knack for leadership?
Colbeck: Nope. Our villain must obviously be an officer and a gentleman. Duh. Moving on.
Of course, Colbeck turns out to be right, but you the reader have a growing uneasy realisation about how satisfying this mystery is going to be (and you’re not wrong). In the end, he identifies the villains from a list of officers on the basis that two of them retired at the same time. He doesn’t have any clue to tell him that he’s looking for two men and not one, by the way. In my head, to make this book more palatable, I just imagined Colbeck is clairvoyant, but couldn’t tell anybody. It helped a little, and had the added piquancy of realising how stupid Colbeck must have thought the people around him were, that he thought he might get away by pretending that this feeble logic was guiding his investigations the whole time.
5. The clichés just trip over each other. The book is so predictable and full of clichés that you’d be forgiven if you thought that Marston had never in his life read or watched anything. For example, there’s a cigar chomping super intendent who is randomly hostile to Colbeck. Or: we are introduced to a young woman. Immediately the author tells us she's attractive, virtuous, clever etc. Not long after this, the hero tells someone that he's open to matrimony only hasn't met anybody suitable yet. Guess what happens with those two. I dare you. Or: there's a bar fight. Quick, think of a bar fight for five seconds and then stop. What did you see in your mind’s eye? Broken bottles and chairs for weapons? Congratulations, you now know how long it took our author to think up that little gem of originality. It's just bloody lazy. But the winner in the cliché department are the villains. You know how Bond villains always tell Bond everything before they kill him and it's hilariously silly? Well here we get the brain-dead version. The same thing happens except it's the two villains tell each other what they did and who they are and bwahahaha together. Which transcends Bond villain silliness and achieves a sort of bad writing/stupidity nirvana. I’m not even kidding:
And before you ask, no, these two turd-for-brains don’t suffer from short term memory loss where they have to keep reminding each other of things they’ve just done together.
There are other things that bothered me in this book, like how all the characters, regardless of social class or country of origin or profession talked the same with the same vernacular and grammar, for example. Or how Colbeck was literally flawless – handsome, well-dressed, educated, clever, always right about everything etc. Or that almost everybody was introduced to the reader with the same pattern of tall/short, fat/thin, man/woman, in his/her thirties/forties/fifties. Or how random trivia were just shoved in gracelessly in the middle of the narrative. Or how predictable everything is. But I think I’ve said enough. Unfortunately, this really wasn’t ready for publishing. The only good thing I can say about this book is that if you are a struggling writer, insecure about your work, re-writing that tired old manuscript that's been gathering dust in your drawer over and over again, torturing yourself about whether it’s good enough – you could read this and take heart. If this got published, chances are it’s worth trying to send out your own stuff to publishers too.
Warning, some spoilers ahead. Although, frankly, I wouldn’t worry about it.
1. The writing is bad. There is no style to the narrative. Marston just plain comes out and tells you everything he wants you to know. There is zero trust on his part that you, the reader, have the mental ability to work anything out by yourself, notice anything that is more subtle than a rhinoceros charging straight at you or memorize anything that’s been said already. Consequently, things are laid out directly. Every person Marston wants you to like will be heaped with accolades from the moment you meet them. For example, Madeline, the love interest, is pretty, humble, modest, selfless, patient, devoted to her parent and intelligent. We don’t find this out by her ever saying or doing anything to prove this to us. No, the author just straight out tells you when you, the reader, meet Maddie. This happens with every character. It’s absurdly obvious whom the author likes and whom he dislikes. Bad people are comically bad, good people are angelically good. Nobody has any guile whatsoever, so they can’t even lie and pretend to be good but turn out to be bad, to make things interesting. Which leads me to my next point…
2. The characterisation is worse. So everybody is either a good guy or a bad guy, which is particularly terrible in crime fiction where there’s supposed to be some suspense about who really is evil. But the characterisation here is worse than that, because nobody behaves at all like real people do. A Victorian woman who flirted with a married man and turned out to have been made a fool of by him simply goes to Colbeck and tells him that she’s been humiliated and used. Rather than feel ashamed, for example, and hide this information, she just walks in, delivers her bit, leaves and never appears again. She’s not a person to Marston, she’s just a prop to deliver the next clue. A widow who receives desperately needed money from a criminal with whom her husband was involved tells Colbeck about the money and offers to hand it in, as it had been acquired through a criminal enterprise. Marston could have made her religious, for example, and given this as a motivation to behave in this way, but he doesn’t bother. Colbeck needs this piece of information so he gets it. The rest is irrelevant to the author.
3. The research is not well used. So, okay, clearly Marston knows some stuff about railways. And the book is called the Railway Detective, so that’s its shtick and he did his homework on that front. But I will be honest – he is terrible at imparting his love for railways to the reader. There is a romance to steam locomotives – they’re aesthetically pleasing, they make awesome sounds, the idea of a journey, the people who meet or part on railway platforms… it’s undeniable that there’s a magnetic appeal to scenes of that kind. Well, you can forget about that in this book. Once in a while Marston will stuff a chunk of dry, hard-to-understand-unless-you-know-the-lingo, information about railways, and that’s it. I guess if you are a huge fan of railways already you might get a kick out of those details, but I’m not sure that’s true. For someone who just likes trains, like me, this didn’t do the job. But there’s another aspect to research in which Marston has completely failed. And that’s research about Victorian mores and behaviours. I mean, ffs, what gentleman would ever tell a lady about a prostitute getting her neck sliced open?!? Hell, I’m pretty sure a policeman today wouldn’t tell someone that unless it were absolutely necessary, but in this novel it isn’t. No, Colbeck insists on Maddie staying in while he delivers this news to her father, just so she can hear it. WHY!? I’m actually curious to find out if it is even possible not to know that that would never fucking happen. At one point Maddie, a single, young, virginal Victorian woman, visits the Scotland Yard to tell the Inspector leading the case against the men who attacked her father, that she is unattached. Really, Marston?!? Honestly!? Or another time, a woman comes to Colbeck’s office, begins to cry and he puts an arm around her to console her. I mean really. Just… just no. No, Marston. No.
4. The detective’s process is atrocious. By far the most irritating aspect of a book riddled with irritating aspects, is Colbeck’s process of detection. I wouldn’t even really call it that. Essentially, Colbeck just knows. He knows things before they’re made clear by any clues, however vague, and he is never, ever wrong. He never pursues a wrong lead, because he instantly just knows to dismiss it, and he immediately knows who is innocent and guilty. He questions the railway policemen because he just knows the robbery of the railway had something to do with them (which is fair enough, that’s certainly what he should have done) but then he doesn’t bother to check the bankers because he trusts that they had nothing to do with it. At some point a report of a murder of a middle aged man comes in, and that instantly makes Colbeck sure that it’s the man he’d been looking for. Literally, that’s his only clue. The man was middle aged. In London. In the Devil’s Acre, which is like the slummiest of slum areas at the time. Then the bodies of dead men are identified by their clothing. It’s okay that that would be their first clue, but wouldn’t you check up on it? Wouldn’t you ask a person familiar with the deceased to identify the body? Colbeck doesn’t just know who the bodies are, but he also immediately knows why they were killed. Just out of thin air, he knows. His deductions are ridiculous:
Clue: The villain gave the widow of his victim £200 pounds.
Colbeck: He must be a gentleman.
In your head you go: Couldn't he just be a person who is in love with the woman? Or likes her? Or has some other sentimental attachment? Maybe was related to her? Or just someone who felt sorry for the widow?
Colbeck: Nope. It's a gentleman. Moving on.
Clue: The criminal commanded a team of men.
Colbeck: He was in the military.
In your head you go: Couldn't he just be a well organised man? A man with a knack for leadership?
Colbeck: Nope. Our villain must obviously be an officer and a gentleman. Duh. Moving on.
Of course, Colbeck turns out to be right, but you the reader have a growing uneasy realisation about how satisfying this mystery is going to be (and you’re not wrong). In the end, he identifies the villains from a list of officers on the basis that two of them retired at the same time. He doesn’t have any clue to tell him that he’s looking for two men and not one, by the way. In my head, to make this book more palatable, I just imagined Colbeck is clairvoyant, but couldn’t tell anybody. It helped a little, and had the added piquancy of realising how stupid Colbeck must have thought the people around him were, that he thought he might get away by pretending that this feeble logic was guiding his investigations the whole time.
5. The clichés just trip over each other. The book is so predictable and full of clichés that you’d be forgiven if you thought that Marston had never in his life read or watched anything. For example, there’s a cigar chomping super intendent who is randomly hostile to Colbeck. Or: we are introduced to a young woman. Immediately the author tells us she's attractive, virtuous, clever etc. Not long after this, the hero tells someone that he's open to matrimony only hasn't met anybody suitable yet. Guess what happens with those two. I dare you. Or: there's a bar fight. Quick, think of a bar fight for five seconds and then stop. What did you see in your mind’s eye? Broken bottles and chairs for weapons? Congratulations, you now know how long it took our author to think up that little gem of originality. It's just bloody lazy. But the winner in the cliché department are the villains. You know how Bond villains always tell Bond everything before they kill him and it's hilariously silly? Well here we get the brain-dead version. The same thing happens except it's the two villains tell each other what they did and who they are and bwahahaha together. Which transcends Bond villain silliness and achieves a sort of bad writing/stupidity nirvana. I’m not even kidding:
Villain 1: Mr Blower was a more difficult [blackmailing] target.
Villain 2: Remind me who he was.
Villain 1: The financier who was fishing in murky waters.
Villain 2: Ah yes. […] Mr Jeremiah Blower. His letter disclosed confidential information about a forthcoming merger. Had his company known how treacherous he was being, they would have dismissed him on the spot. What value did we set on his ill-judged letter?
Villain 1: Three hundred pounds.
Villain 2: Yet he refused to pay up.
Villain 1: Initially. He made all kinds of wild threats and was even foolish enough to strike out at me. He soon regretted that. I knocked him flat. And because he had the gall to haggle with me, I put up the price. He ended up paying twice as much as we asked.
Villain 2: What with Lord Holcroft and the others, we’ve made a tidy profit.
And before you ask, no, these two turd-for-brains don’t suffer from short term memory loss where they have to keep reminding each other of things they’ve just done together.
There are other things that bothered me in this book, like how all the characters, regardless of social class or country of origin or profession talked the same with the same vernacular and grammar, for example. Or how Colbeck was literally flawless – handsome, well-dressed, educated, clever, always right about everything etc. Or that almost everybody was introduced to the reader with the same pattern of tall/short, fat/thin, man/woman, in his/her thirties/forties/fifties. Or how random trivia were just shoved in gracelessly in the middle of the narrative. Or how predictable everything is. But I think I’ve said enough. Unfortunately, this really wasn’t ready for publishing. The only good thing I can say about this book is that if you are a struggling writer, insecure about your work, re-writing that tired old manuscript that's been gathering dust in your drawer over and over again, torturing yourself about whether it’s good enough – you could read this and take heart. If this got published, chances are it’s worth trying to send out your own stuff to publishers too.
September 13, 2023
A cozy police procedural series!
Victorian England in the 1850s is the dawn of the locomotive age. Trains are supplanting the use of horses, carriages and canals as the method of choice for economic movement of goods and personal travel. But there are those who think of the trains as an industrial abomination, a blight on the pastoral beauty of England's countryside and unthinking "progress" that should be fought and halted on every possible front.
THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE is a very clever and entirely enjoyable introduction to Inspector Robert Colbeck, an intelligent, innovative and imaginative up-and-coming detective in the relatively new Scotland Yard of 1851. He has been assigned by his hidebound, equally unimaginative and outrageously old-fashioned Superintendent to the case of a train robbery. The brilliantly orchestrated theft of an enormous amount of bank gold and a number of bags of en-route mail together with the brutal pistol whipping of the engineer who dared to confront the robbers all pointed in the direction of a heist carefully planned with almost military precision. The use of inside information from the train company, the bank and the post office also seemed to be a foregone conclusion. The questions were why and how??
Marston makes excellent use of all aspects of his Victorian England setting to produce an effective historical novel. Class distinctions are convincingly maintained by the conduct and the dialogue of his cast of characters. But Marston's decision to reveal the culprit of the piece far too early in the novel, reduces what would have been a clever mystery to little more than a cozy and somewhat predictable police procedural that relies for its quality on dialogue and characterization.
Despite this decision that, were I Marston's editor, I might have suggested be done differently, THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE is an enjoyable start to a new series. The love interest in the story was both charming and heartwarming. I'm sure it will form a part of the upcoming novels in a new series that I'm looking forward to. I'll look forward to reading the next novel in the series and seeing if Marston has chosen to make his mystery just a little more challenging.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
Victorian England in the 1850s is the dawn of the locomotive age. Trains are supplanting the use of horses, carriages and canals as the method of choice for economic movement of goods and personal travel. But there are those who think of the trains as an industrial abomination, a blight on the pastoral beauty of England's countryside and unthinking "progress" that should be fought and halted on every possible front.
THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE is a very clever and entirely enjoyable introduction to Inspector Robert Colbeck, an intelligent, innovative and imaginative up-and-coming detective in the relatively new Scotland Yard of 1851. He has been assigned by his hidebound, equally unimaginative and outrageously old-fashioned Superintendent to the case of a train robbery. The brilliantly orchestrated theft of an enormous amount of bank gold and a number of bags of en-route mail together with the brutal pistol whipping of the engineer who dared to confront the robbers all pointed in the direction of a heist carefully planned with almost military precision. The use of inside information from the train company, the bank and the post office also seemed to be a foregone conclusion. The questions were why and how??
Marston makes excellent use of all aspects of his Victorian England setting to produce an effective historical novel. Class distinctions are convincingly maintained by the conduct and the dialogue of his cast of characters. But Marston's decision to reveal the culprit of the piece far too early in the novel, reduces what would have been a clever mystery to little more than a cozy and somewhat predictable police procedural that relies for its quality on dialogue and characterization.
Despite this decision that, were I Marston's editor, I might have suggested be done differently, THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE is an enjoyable start to a new series. The love interest in the story was both charming and heartwarming. I'm sure it will form a part of the upcoming novels in a new series that I'm looking forward to. I'll look forward to reading the next novel in the series and seeing if Marston has chosen to make his mystery just a little more challenging.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
December 11, 2024
Lunchtime Listen December 2024
I bought a few of Edward Marston’s books and also audiobooks as I really liked the look of the covers.
This is the first one I have listened to, and after a while getting used to the narrator (he sounded like Jim Broadbent to me - it wasn’t needless to say), my wife and I then got quite engrossed in the book.
Not an Agatha Christie or indeed a Simenon, I did find the writing good and really quite enjoyed the smart , well dressed but kindly Inspector Robert Colbeck.
Also making a change for me, was the fact that about half way through, you are introduced to the protagonist and are just waiting for him and Colbeck to cross paths.
I bought a few of Edward Marston’s books and also audiobooks as I really liked the look of the covers.
This is the first one I have listened to, and after a while getting used to the narrator (he sounded like Jim Broadbent to me - it wasn’t needless to say), my wife and I then got quite engrossed in the book.
Not an Agatha Christie or indeed a Simenon, I did find the writing good and really quite enjoyed the smart , well dressed but kindly Inspector Robert Colbeck.
Also making a change for me, was the fact that about half way through, you are introduced to the protagonist and are just waiting for him and Colbeck to cross paths.
July 25, 2014
I really wanted to like this book, but found it almost laughably bad. Considering the author is (was?) the patron of the Crime writers association, it doesn't say much for the aforementioned society.
Initially, I thought it was a parody, the writing was so wooden, but then - after about 80 pages - the horrible truth dawned on me, it was simply bad... It reads like something a 15 year old might write (and not a very bright 15 year old at that).
I can only assume that the author must be well connected, because there is no way on earth he would have such a bland, uninspiring piece accepted if he was cold calling with it on agents.
A disgrace to fiction, AVOID AT ALL costs...
Initially, I thought it was a parody, the writing was so wooden, but then - after about 80 pages - the horrible truth dawned on me, it was simply bad... It reads like something a 15 year old might write (and not a very bright 15 year old at that).
I can only assume that the author must be well connected, because there is no way on earth he would have such a bland, uninspiring piece accepted if he was cold calling with it on agents.
A disgrace to fiction, AVOID AT ALL costs...
January 16, 2016
The Railway Detective is a good book to read while driving, which is how I read this one. Let me first begin by praising Simon Prebble's narration and the ease with which he passed between Irish brogue, Scottish burr, upmarket, cockney, sneering upper class, midland laborer, and soldier of the Raj British accents. Good fun.
What were not so fun were the book's characters and plot. I picked up the Railway Detective because it was set in the same world of Chubb safes, bank transfers, railroad robbery, and Victorian England as one of my favorite books, The Great Train Robbery, and indeed some of the details of the historical period were fleshed out entertainingly.
The problem? The hero is too perfect, his foils are too bumbling and incompetent (even Arther Doyle gave more respect to Lestrade than Marston does to Colbeck's boss), the damsel too modest yet smitten, the villain too noble and twisted. The ending, too predictable.
The conversations in the book are too expository - every subtlety is explained to the reader by the characters, in dialogs that run, every time, just a beat too long, to where you feel as if the point is being hammered home. The author uses the "tell, don't show" method of getting his ideas across.
On the other hand, things are presented, explained, repeated, and then explained one more time in the dialog, so that it really is a good book to read while driving, for if you are distracted and miss something, you can be sure the characters will make the point repeatedly again in a minute or too.
Not a terrible effort, but there is very little mystery in the book and cardboard characters.
What were not so fun were the book's characters and plot. I picked up the Railway Detective because it was set in the same world of Chubb safes, bank transfers, railroad robbery, and Victorian England as one of my favorite books, The Great Train Robbery, and indeed some of the details of the historical period were fleshed out entertainingly.
The problem? The hero is too perfect, his foils are too bumbling and incompetent (even Arther Doyle gave more respect to Lestrade than Marston does to Colbeck's boss), the damsel too modest yet smitten, the villain too noble and twisted. The ending, too predictable.
The conversations in the book are too expository - every subtlety is explained to the reader by the characters, in dialogs that run, every time, just a beat too long, to where you feel as if the point is being hammered home. The author uses the "tell, don't show" method of getting his ideas across.
On the other hand, things are presented, explained, repeated, and then explained one more time in the dialog, so that it really is a good book to read while driving, for if you are distracted and miss something, you can be sure the characters will make the point repeatedly again in a minute or too.
Not a terrible effort, but there is very little mystery in the book and cardboard characters.
May 6, 2010
What a dull book! I'm a big fan of Victorian detective stories, and I knew this was the first in a series of popular mysteries, so I was eager to give it a go. I ended up being really disappointed and struggled to see it through to the end.
The plot is simplistic in the extreme. Our detective is on the trail of a criminal gang who plot to blow up various trains. Their motives are gradually revealed as the story progresses. In terms of detection, there's very little going on here. Inspector Colbeck seems to rely on intuition and guesswork with little or none of the problem-solving that made famous literary detectives like Dupin or Holmes so entertaining. I was looking forward to seeing some real detection, but it never happened.
For instance, the scene in which Colbeck figures out the names of the guilty from a list of army regiments feels completely contrived. He just goes through the list and says "ah, yes, these two are the men". I didn't believe it for a second.
Furthermore, the characters aren't very appealing. Colbeck is one of those flawless personalities without a single foible, too good to be true. He seems supercilious, smug and rather irritating. I disliked the way he thought of his good friend, a sergeant, as "ugly". What does that say about his character? The bad guys aren't really hateful, the token love interest bland. The only one of interest is an Irish hardcase called Mulrayne, and he doesn't appear very much.
Another problem is that I didn't feel the era was very authentic. Descriptions of trains are thrown in as mere exposition and they don't play nearly the important part in the stor I thought they would. You get very little of Victorian atmosphere and the characters certainly don't speak in the prim and reserved way our ancestors did. For instance, there's reference to somebody having their "head smashed in", which sounds distinctly 21st century rather than 19th.
I guess the classics, like those written by Conan Doyle, Dickens, Poe, Collins and their like, have spoilt me, so an author will have to work very hard to write a 19th century detective yarn I find convincing. In the meantime, I have the first in Marston's series of Domesday-era mysteries on my shelf, so I'm hoping that's more to my liking.
The plot is simplistic in the extreme. Our detective is on the trail of a criminal gang who plot to blow up various trains. Their motives are gradually revealed as the story progresses. In terms of detection, there's very little going on here. Inspector Colbeck seems to rely on intuition and guesswork with little or none of the problem-solving that made famous literary detectives like Dupin or Holmes so entertaining. I was looking forward to seeing some real detection, but it never happened.
For instance, the scene in which Colbeck figures out the names of the guilty from a list of army regiments feels completely contrived. He just goes through the list and says "ah, yes, these two are the men". I didn't believe it for a second.
Furthermore, the characters aren't very appealing. Colbeck is one of those flawless personalities without a single foible, too good to be true. He seems supercilious, smug and rather irritating. I disliked the way he thought of his good friend, a sergeant, as "ugly". What does that say about his character? The bad guys aren't really hateful, the token love interest bland. The only one of interest is an Irish hardcase called Mulrayne, and he doesn't appear very much.
Another problem is that I didn't feel the era was very authentic. Descriptions of trains are thrown in as mere exposition and they don't play nearly the important part in the stor I thought they would. You get very little of Victorian atmosphere and the characters certainly don't speak in the prim and reserved way our ancestors did. For instance, there's reference to somebody having their "head smashed in", which sounds distinctly 21st century rather than 19th.
I guess the classics, like those written by Conan Doyle, Dickens, Poe, Collins and their like, have spoilt me, so an author will have to work very hard to write a 19th century detective yarn I find convincing. In the meantime, I have the first in Marston's series of Domesday-era mysteries on my shelf, so I'm hoping that's more to my liking.
October 28, 2016
I have recently started reading historical crime fiction, before that I was mostly interested in modern forensics so it is a bit of a change. Given the good reviews for this series I thought I'd start at the beginning and read through it.
The Railway Detective introduces us to Inspector Robert Colbeck and his investigation into a train robbery in 1851. Colbeck is not your usual policeman, He is a qualified lawyer and extremely smart. He is ably assisted by the rather more plodding Sergeant Victor Leeming and just as ably hindered by the rigid minded Superintendent Tallis. The London to Birmingham train, carrying thousands of pounds in gold coins, is very professionally held up, the driver beaten, the train destroyed and the gold taken. Colbeck is convinced that the robbers had inside help so his first step is to identify this help but things take a turn for the worse when they are murdered.
I really enjoyed The Railway Detective. Yes, the characters are a bit clichéd and the dialogue/sensibilities a bit modern but it is a rip roaring adventure in the old style and held my attention throughout. I don't think it should be taken too seriously although the author has obviously done his homework on the period detail and should be regarded as entertainment. As such it is a very easy way to pass a few hours.
The Railway Detective introduces us to Inspector Robert Colbeck and his investigation into a train robbery in 1851. Colbeck is not your usual policeman, He is a qualified lawyer and extremely smart. He is ably assisted by the rather more plodding Sergeant Victor Leeming and just as ably hindered by the rigid minded Superintendent Tallis. The London to Birmingham train, carrying thousands of pounds in gold coins, is very professionally held up, the driver beaten, the train destroyed and the gold taken. Colbeck is convinced that the robbers had inside help so his first step is to identify this help but things take a turn for the worse when they are murdered.
I really enjoyed The Railway Detective. Yes, the characters are a bit clichéd and the dialogue/sensibilities a bit modern but it is a rip roaring adventure in the old style and held my attention throughout. I don't think it should be taken too seriously although the author has obviously done his homework on the period detail and should be regarded as entertainment. As such it is a very easy way to pass a few hours.
February 14, 2011
The Railway Detective has decided flaws -- the main character, Robert Colbeck, is just too perfect, good-looking and fashionable and a brilliant mind, but also able to roll up his sleeves and fight, and he's a charmer, and a man of good taste, and he's always right... The other problems involve the structure of the detective story itself: it doesn't play fair, I don't think. You're not able to follow the plot and figure out the culprits yourself, they're given to you, and Colbeck makes big leaps in intuition which would be no substitute for the kind of hard work his subordinate puts in, in the real world.
Still, there was something about the smooth telling of the story I quite enjoyed -- in style it reminded me of Dorothy L. Sayers' work by way of Jo Walton's Farthing, somehow. Not that Colbeck is a patch on Carmichael or Lord Peter Wimsey, but that link was there -- the style is something like that, though not pitch-perfect. I also read it at an eminently suitable time, given that I was on a train at the time.
I'm not rushing out to buy the rest of the series, but should I be bored on a train with my Kindle on hand...
Still, there was something about the smooth telling of the story I quite enjoyed -- in style it reminded me of Dorothy L. Sayers' work by way of Jo Walton's Farthing, somehow. Not that Colbeck is a patch on Carmichael or Lord Peter Wimsey, but that link was there -- the style is something like that, though not pitch-perfect. I also read it at an eminently suitable time, given that I was on a train at the time.
I'm not rushing out to buy the rest of the series, but should I be bored on a train with my Kindle on hand...
February 8, 2017
The Railway Detective was a very enjoyable start to a new series. I enjoyed reading about the first train robbery in Victorian England. It was a fun read with good historical background of the time and place. The plot had its bad and good guys with twists that hold your attention. I'm looking forward to the next book and I recommend this series to mystery lovers and railway enthusiasts.
April 6, 2023
Undemanding historical crime fiction. Unfortunately its very perfunctory in style, lacking style or atmosphere and characters that are very one note and generic. The criminals are revealed midway through, there's never any jeopardy or doubt that the police will get their man. Indeed, the ease with which the detective leaps from one - always amazingly accurate - conclusion to the next becomes rather laughable. Disappointing. Plenty of better examples of the genre out there.
June 26, 2016
Do you like mysteries? Do you like fast paced adventure? Do you enjoy a quick and fast read that makes you want to stay up all night to finish the book? If so, the Edward Marston is an author you do not want to miss. I read his most recent book about a different detective than in this series, but so enjoyed that book that I decided to go back to his earlier works and this one did not disappoint. This is the first of I think 12 books in his Inspector Colbeck mysteries, and takes us back to 1851 London and the advent of the railroad trains and the first train robbery that has occurred in England. It is a wonderful tale, and it filled with characters that seem right out of the Murdoch Mysteries series I watch on Acorn TV and which now begin their 10th season up in Canada. You have the rough and irascible Superintendent, the sidekick Sergeant and the debonair and intelligent Inspector Colbeck. Colbeck needs to figure out why the train was robbed, how the thieves managed to stage the robbery, who were the accomplices and then throw in a few murders along the way and you have all you need for a rip snortingly good read. I love Marston and he may be the best of the unknown mystery authors. Give him a try. Yes, sometimes things unfold a little to easily but that never seems to stand in the way for a great first book in the Inspector Colbeck - the Railroad Detective - series.
May 27, 2013
I love historical mysteries and tried to give this one the benefit of the doubt. But . . .There is no character development; the only character to be more than a cardboard archetype was the detective's assistant. There's little suspense as the villain is revealed (out of nowhere) about halfway through the book. The characters often serve as mouthpieces to impart statistical information about Victorian railroads. If you are looking for historical mysteries in this time period, you'd do much better with Anne Perry, Charles Finch, Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes, or on the American side of the pond, Victoria Thompson.
April 13, 2016
I really like this series! I've already purchased#4!! Inspector Colbeck & Madaleine are adorable. Too, I like that he takes a cerebral, out-of-the-box approach when solving a case, much to the consternation of his superior. In my opinion, it's more refined than Clive Cussler's Isaac Bell.
September 20, 2018
This is the first book in the Railway Detective books. I read the second, then third now first, so I wasn’t too worried during the story as I know what happens to some of the characters two books down the line.
Although I knew this there wasn’t so much of a mystery to me because half way through you know who the robbers are and what they are up to.
I like an element of shock and surprise.
Also if Caleb was my dad I would die of embarrassment with the things he would say in front of other people. I wanted to slap him.
I love Detective Colbeck, it’s almost too unreal to believe he is that good at what he does, but it was a good easy read.
Although I knew this there wasn’t so much of a mystery to me because half way through you know who the robbers are and what they are up to.
I like an element of shock and surprise.
Also if Caleb was my dad I would die of embarrassment with the things he would say in front of other people. I wanted to slap him.
I love Detective Colbeck, it’s almost too unreal to believe he is that good at what he does, but it was a good easy read.
July 1, 2012
I read this historical mystery (set in Victorian England) because Goodreads recommended it to me and all I have to say to Goodreads after having read it is-THANK YOU!!!
This book is wonderful. I have enjoyed riding trains my whole life and while I love Amtrak, I have a special affection for the trains all over Europe (Western, Eastern, and yes, even Russian). In this story, set in 1851 England, Caleb Andrews is a man who not only drives a train but loves the trains (at one point he declared he loved them as if they were his children.). He and his fireman Frank Pike are about to drive a special load of gold coin and mail and have special guards on board.
These two responsible and hardworking men are stunned when they get to a station they were not to stop at and are signaled by a police officer to stop. Unfortunately this was not a real police officer and thugs board the train and open the safe containing the gold coin using the key for that purpose and with use of the combination- both of which are usually kept under special lock and key as well as combination at the treasury.
Even worse, when Caleb refuses to do as the men say, he is brutally attacked and has his leg and collarbone broken and a severe concussion. He is lucky to survive. Poor Frank is forced at gunpoint to derail the train.
Caleb is taken to a table in the station and a doctor and the police called. On the case will be Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck. He is an unusual detective- a former lawyer who dresses like a lord. He is a modest man, never trying to grab credit for himself and never losing his temper. The reason he became a policeman is revealed in the book at a later point. He loves train travel.
He is ably assisted Sergeant Victor Leeming who is described as ugly but who has a wife and kids who adore him. He is a very solid and capable officer. Both of them are hindered somewhat by their usually ill-tempered boss Superintendent Tallis who does nothing but criticize and complain.
One thing that is so fascinating about this book is the way Colbeck and Leeming find clues and follow them up without the use of any of the modern police technology. There are no cars, no computers, no cell phones. Through very good detective work, Colbeck and Leeming discover that there had to be inside help to know that the train was carrying easily used coin instead of paper money with serial numbers and to get hold of the key and combination to the safe. Unfortunately after they track down two of those who gave info, those two wind up dead. It is a puzzle why the killer leaves money for the widow of one whose husband had abandoned her and the kids to go live with a hooker.
There is a cast of very colorful characters here. The story involves trains, a hooker with a knife in her garter belt, a thwarted suitor who creeps about town spying on the woman who doesn't love him, blackmailers, kidnappers, murderers, inept guys trying to blow up tunnels and a train in a glass exhibition hall, a rich lord seeking revenge, and even a very sweet budding romance between Colbeck and Caleb Andrews' daughter Madeleine who is charming and capable with strong feminist tendencies which makes his respect her even more as an equal. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship bud as the book went on.
The book was also very well written. There was quite a bit of humor in such a classy way that it was never silly. The story moved along briskly with just enough detail and plenty of witty conversation. I wish I had written this! The author Edward Marston has been writing for over 30 year including for television, movies, and theater and the experience shows. He knows how to tell a story.
I have already ordered more of his books from the library.
This book is wonderful. I have enjoyed riding trains my whole life and while I love Amtrak, I have a special affection for the trains all over Europe (Western, Eastern, and yes, even Russian). In this story, set in 1851 England, Caleb Andrews is a man who not only drives a train but loves the trains (at one point he declared he loved them as if they were his children.). He and his fireman Frank Pike are about to drive a special load of gold coin and mail and have special guards on board.
These two responsible and hardworking men are stunned when they get to a station they were not to stop at and are signaled by a police officer to stop. Unfortunately this was not a real police officer and thugs board the train and open the safe containing the gold coin using the key for that purpose and with use of the combination- both of which are usually kept under special lock and key as well as combination at the treasury.
Even worse, when Caleb refuses to do as the men say, he is brutally attacked and has his leg and collarbone broken and a severe concussion. He is lucky to survive. Poor Frank is forced at gunpoint to derail the train.
Caleb is taken to a table in the station and a doctor and the police called. On the case will be Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck. He is an unusual detective- a former lawyer who dresses like a lord. He is a modest man, never trying to grab credit for himself and never losing his temper. The reason he became a policeman is revealed in the book at a later point. He loves train travel.
He is ably assisted Sergeant Victor Leeming who is described as ugly but who has a wife and kids who adore him. He is a very solid and capable officer. Both of them are hindered somewhat by their usually ill-tempered boss Superintendent Tallis who does nothing but criticize and complain.
One thing that is so fascinating about this book is the way Colbeck and Leeming find clues and follow them up without the use of any of the modern police technology. There are no cars, no computers, no cell phones. Through very good detective work, Colbeck and Leeming discover that there had to be inside help to know that the train was carrying easily used coin instead of paper money with serial numbers and to get hold of the key and combination to the safe. Unfortunately after they track down two of those who gave info, those two wind up dead. It is a puzzle why the killer leaves money for the widow of one whose husband had abandoned her and the kids to go live with a hooker.
There is a cast of very colorful characters here. The story involves trains, a hooker with a knife in her garter belt, a thwarted suitor who creeps about town spying on the woman who doesn't love him, blackmailers, kidnappers, murderers, inept guys trying to blow up tunnels and a train in a glass exhibition hall, a rich lord seeking revenge, and even a very sweet budding romance between Colbeck and Caleb Andrews' daughter Madeleine who is charming and capable with strong feminist tendencies which makes his respect her even more as an equal. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship bud as the book went on.
The book was also very well written. There was quite a bit of humor in such a classy way that it was never silly. The story moved along briskly with just enough detail and plenty of witty conversation. I wish I had written this! The author Edward Marston has been writing for over 30 year including for television, movies, and theater and the experience shows. He knows how to tell a story.
I have already ordered more of his books from the library.
January 10, 2015
Returning to the start of this series again to make a concerted effort to read these books in order.
This is the birth of the Railway Detective and follows the investigation into what is never called The Great Train Robbery but that is what it is infact from Victorian times. This is a story from the 1850's just prior to the Great Exhibition and reflects a love of steam engines and railways that didn't always share. Indeed the motivation for this crime was a loathing of all things connected to The Railway Age and a personal desire to destroy this new industry.
The book isn't perfect; the characterisation is a little two-dimentional but in Inspector Robert Colbeck we have a dashing hero. The conrast between the detective and the criminal gang leader is one of personal loss; one turns it to destroy the other to redeem and prevent loss.
Loads of connections to the era which set this novel nicely in its time and plenty of scope to flesh out these characters in future books.
That is to me the beauty of any crime series and where I returned to the beginning. I enjoy Edward Martin's writing especially the Home Front detective books, and feel in safe hands to explore this historical period. A good story with little mystery in terms of solving the case, Colbeck is one step ahead of everyone including the reader but the writing is entertaining and there is danger and distress throughout.
This is the birth of the Railway Detective and follows the investigation into what is never called The Great Train Robbery but that is what it is infact from Victorian times. This is a story from the 1850's just prior to the Great Exhibition and reflects a love of steam engines and railways that didn't always share. Indeed the motivation for this crime was a loathing of all things connected to The Railway Age and a personal desire to destroy this new industry.
The book isn't perfect; the characterisation is a little two-dimentional but in Inspector Robert Colbeck we have a dashing hero. The conrast between the detective and the criminal gang leader is one of personal loss; one turns it to destroy the other to redeem and prevent loss.
Loads of connections to the era which set this novel nicely in its time and plenty of scope to flesh out these characters in future books.
That is to me the beauty of any crime series and where I returned to the beginning. I enjoy Edward Martin's writing especially the Home Front detective books, and feel in safe hands to explore this historical period. A good story with little mystery in terms of solving the case, Colbeck is one step ahead of everyone including the reader but the writing is entertaining and there is danger and distress throughout.
February 14, 2011
Very light reading but not without interest. This is the first of a series by Marston which is set in Victorian England at the beginning of the railroad age. The author appears to know his railroad history as he leads his Inspector Colbeck on the trail of a gang that is bent on destroying anything connected to railroads. The story is fairly simplistic as the Inspector and his men track down the culprits and bring them to justice. A little romance is injected which I assume will develop as the series continues. Nothing exciting here but it is an enjoyable book for bedside reading.
December 3, 2012
This is a great little mystery about a railway detective who sets about trying to find who has blown up a train and why. It is set in Victorian times around the time of the Great Exhibition. The writer has written many other books apparently and knows his history. There is a great deal on steam locomotives but it has plenty of humour and some darkness too.
A thinking-man's 'cosy'!!
A thinking-man's 'cosy'!!
dnf
February 25, 2023No rating as a DNF. Just wasn't eager to continue reading it, so moving on.
February 19, 2017
I read the book as a part of an omnibus.
I have a knack for mysteries set in Victorian England. Inspector Robert Coleback is different compared to other Inspectors, policemen, and detectives I met so far in other books.
Nevertheless I like him and I'm happy that I read the first book in the series.
Even the reader knows the culprit quite early, I liked the description of police work. Despite that the story is full of information about the Victorian Era and especially the railway at that time.
You should stay away when you look for a fast paced Victorian mystery.
For me it was a good start to another series I will follow.
I have a knack for mysteries set in Victorian England. Inspector Robert Coleback is different compared to other Inspectors, policemen, and detectives I met so far in other books.
Nevertheless I like him and I'm happy that I read the first book in the series.
Even the reader knows the culprit quite early, I liked the description of police work. Despite that the story is full of information about the Victorian Era and especially the railway at that time.
You should stay away when you look for a fast paced Victorian mystery.
For me it was a good start to another series I will follow.
March 17, 2017
A fairly interesting mystery, but stilted dialogue and some poorly planned plot turns, although there is a reasonable amount of action and suspense. Still, I am currently enjoying a period of comfort reading and this fits right in.
July 5, 2021
I really enjoyed reading this, the characters were all relatable, the story was engaging and moved at a good pace.
April 17, 2022
Even my one star seems generous after wasting my time reading this drivel. Set in a time which gave us great Dickensian characters and settings, I had relatively high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, what I got was a lot of paint by numbers 'mystery' whereby the lead detective follows clues which he finds in more and more stupid ways as the story progresses. One of my personal favourites was the 'secret compartment letter' found in a cabinet because 'my dad made cabinets ya know, they all have them'. Bafflingly ridiculous.
Not only that, never have I read a book where the lead character is so unlikeable I began to root for the villain (who seems to like explaining every aspect of his plan to his dimwitted companions). Colbeck has no charm and is described as handsome and well-dressed 100 times throughout...that is ultimately his character profile. The one saving grace is Brendan Mulrhyne, who I hoped would just take over the case.
I would steer clear of the sequels, that's for sure! From what I can gather, there was no editor involved: surely it wouldn't have been put to print if there was. Do yourself a favour, read a Holmes novel or something similar...unless you like your mysteries as intriguing and enjoyable as a tin of beige paint.
Also, as an afterthought, having to read the author's name at the top of every page really irritated me as well. I could almost imagine him high-fiving himself after each page turn!
Not only that, never have I read a book where the lead character is so unlikeable I began to root for the villain (who seems to like explaining every aspect of his plan to his dimwitted companions). Colbeck has no charm and is described as handsome and well-dressed 100 times throughout...that is ultimately his character profile. The one saving grace is Brendan Mulrhyne, who I hoped would just take over the case.
I would steer clear of the sequels, that's for sure! From what I can gather, there was no editor involved: surely it wouldn't have been put to print if there was. Do yourself a favour, read a Holmes novel or something similar...unless you like your mysteries as intriguing and enjoyable as a tin of beige paint.
Also, as an afterthought, having to read the author's name at the top of every page really irritated me as well. I could almost imagine him high-fiving himself after each page turn!
August 5, 2024
Very 'by the numbers' detective story, none of the characters had any interesting traits barring what they needed to function as their role in the plot really. The... four? women in the story were all either chaste, angelic creatures or actual prostitutes, not brilliant. I found the protagonist a bit smug/smarmy to begin with as well, I warmed up to him somewhat throughout though.
Not a lot of description of locations which made it hard to picture where anything was happening, it often felt like a series of conversations happening in the void.
I am thinking about reading the next book in this (surprisingly long) series though, so I did enjoy it to some degree, a very light detective novel with trains in is something that's hard for me to say no to, it turns out!
Not a lot of description of locations which made it hard to picture where anything was happening, it often felt like a series of conversations happening in the void.
I am thinking about reading the next book in this (surprisingly long) series though, so I did enjoy it to some degree, a very light detective novel with trains in is something that's hard for me to say no to, it turns out!
March 16, 2023
A good, solid period piece. The action all begins in the 1950s with a detailed and highly sophisticated robbery of a mail train that not only carried mail but gold.
Entering in the fray is Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck, who quickly finds things that made the robbery go even more easily for the robbers, who left the driver badly injured and his fireman forced to drive the train off the rails.
Colbeck begins his investigation and his intelligence and patience are put to the forefront as he slowly tracks down clues and possible suspects who end up killed to keep them silent.
A well written mystery with believable characters and a thrilling end. A very good read.
Entering in the fray is Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck, who quickly finds things that made the robbery go even more easily for the robbers, who left the driver badly injured and his fireman forced to drive the train off the rails.
Colbeck begins his investigation and his intelligence and patience are put to the forefront as he slowly tracks down clues and possible suspects who end up killed to keep them silent.
A well written mystery with believable characters and a thrilling end. A very good read.
November 20, 2023
In the end it was a fun read.
January 31, 2025
A really good read, very easy goibg detective story, looking forward to the rest of the series
June 20, 2010
Sometimes a lightish mystery story is just what I am in the mood for, and so this seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It's also historical, I haven't read many historical mysteries before - except a few Ann Perry some years ago - but I like historical novels in general.
In The Railway detective, we are introduced to Inspector Robert Colbeck, a likeable dandysih fellow who started out life as a barrister. He is rather different in manner and speech to his colleagues a fact which is remarked upon by several characters. The crime he is investiagting is that of a serious train robbery in which the driver is seriously hurt. As the investigation gets going there are a couple of other murders to contend with. The plot is not overly complicated, and the reader always knows exactly who did what, so there is no great reveal to look forward to at the end. The real story is that of the investigation, policing in the 1850's the still early years of railway travel, and the attendent suspicion it roused in many. The dialogue seems a tad modern in places, but that is a small criticism, it's a great easy read, perfect for a lazy weekend. I must say I could hardly put it down.
In The Railway detective, we are introduced to Inspector Robert Colbeck, a likeable dandysih fellow who started out life as a barrister. He is rather different in manner and speech to his colleagues a fact which is remarked upon by several characters. The crime he is investiagting is that of a serious train robbery in which the driver is seriously hurt. As the investigation gets going there are a couple of other murders to contend with. The plot is not overly complicated, and the reader always knows exactly who did what, so there is no great reveal to look forward to at the end. The real story is that of the investigation, policing in the 1850's the still early years of railway travel, and the attendent suspicion it roused in many. The dialogue seems a tad modern in places, but that is a small criticism, it's a great easy read, perfect for a lazy weekend. I must say I could hardly put it down.
April 29, 2012
The end is somewhat blurred, but otherwise the book is well-researched and historically accurate. There is definitely a commendable attempt to use some elements of the Victorian discourse, so the wording does not jar on your ears as historically inaccurate. What's more, the book actually promotes technological progress, accepting and admitting that there are some emotional and physical causalities and victims.
The dapper inspector is such a dear:-)
It is a good escape novel, and it is good enough to stimulate me to order the next one in the series.
The dapper inspector is such a dear:-)
It is a good escape novel, and it is good enough to stimulate me to order the next one in the series.
March 1, 2016
I picked four of these 'Railway Detective' novels up in a charity bookshop so I still have three more to wade through. This was 'ok'. Nothing special or clever, not even a very likeable MC. It was all too ... easy somehow. The writing was heavy in places: forced dialogue, too many adverbs, too many descriptions of the mechanics of steam locomotives as if the author had done loads of research and wasn't prepared to waste any of it.
I will read the next three and then they can go back to the charity shop where I will look for something a little heftier to read.
I will read the next three and then they can go back to the charity shop where I will look for something a little heftier to read.
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