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Bezig met laden... The Railway Detectivedoor Edward Marston
Books Read in 2014 (1,875) British Mystery (380) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. In 1851 a mail train is hijacked, robbed, and the engine run off the track, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Lemming take on the case. The question to be answered was how did the robbers know when the train would be at the fateful site of the robbery, was this a lone act or will there be other such incidents in the future. The characters are are well developed. This is a good start to this series. This is the first in a series of detective novels set in the mid-19th century around the then quite new railway system. The sleuth is police Inspector Robert Colbeck, a cultured and intelligent man who originally trained as a lawyer before turning to police work. It is 1851 and the run up to the Great Exhibition. A daring robbery takes place of a mail train carrying gold coins. This is followed by an explosion in a rail tunnel and then two murders. All of these crimes are linked through a particular individual with a very personal motive for undermining the railway system and the wider economy. This is a good page turner of a novel with a dramatic plot, but I found much of the dialogue slightly stilted. Colbeck is an appealing central protagonist, though his colleagues are pretty cliched: the unintelligent but loyal and brave deputy, the overbearing and constantly critical senior officer. There are at least 16 novels in this series, and the period is an interesting one, with the railways poised to transform the British economy by revolutionising transport and providing unprecedented opportunities for ordinary people to travel more widely than ever before - though not everyone appreciates these advantages.
My only real problem with Marston's narrative style was the somewhat repetitive way he introduced characters, with name, approximate age and physical appearance all bundled into one pithy sentence. His descriptions of places are fine, his understanding of trains impressively detailed, his dialogue generally believable and easy to follow. Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Is opgenomen in
Fiction.
Mystery.
Historical Fiction.
HTML: 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? Full of historical detail, The Railway Detective is an action-packed dip into murky 1850s London. .Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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On the plus side, it's a detective story, set in the early days of both the Railways and the Detective Section of the Met Police. The author seems to have done his research, such as having the detective arrive by train into Birmingham at (then correct) Curzon Street, rather than New Street or Moor Street (the current two most frequently used train stations between London and Birmingham).
On the negative side: It read like the author's first novel, which apparently it isnt. The book is riddled with stereotypes: the Irish ex-policeman kicked out the force for drunken fighting who makes his living as a bouncer in a rough pub; the slightly dim-witted and subserviant sidekick; the head of the detective division being harassed by the press and causing friction with his detectives by stopping them doing what they want to do; the well dressed detective who likes bending the rules almost to breaking point.
On the whole, a decent read, but I'm not sure that I'd continue with the series ( )