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The Silver Locomotive Mystery (2009)

by Edward Marston(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0749083972 (ISBN13: 9780749083977)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Allison & Busby

series

The Railway Detective

review 1: Another of the Robert Colbeck stories by Edward Marston. Set just before Railway to the Grave, Inspector Colbeck is called in to find out what happened to a silver coffee pot in the shape of a railway locomotive being carried to Bristol. The courier, the silversmith's young apprentice, was taking it, but he's ended up being messily murdered in a Bristol hotel room. With Detective Sergeant Victor Leeming at his beck and call, Colbeck sets off for the West Country and soon discovers a nest of intrigue, jealousy and acting that is worthy of an Agatha Christie "Poirot" mystery. But the real questions are, why should the apprentice have been murdered, what has become of the silversmith's son, and will Robert finally ask his friend Madeleine Andrews to marry him? 6/10 (Dec... moreember 2012)
review 2: This was an OK read, a standard who-dunnit. A man is horribly murdered in a railway hotel room and a priceless silver model of a train is stolen. The book is set in a rather sanitised 1854, England and Wales. The characters are rather thin, all the goodies decent, too decent, but the mystery mostly holds. The problem with this sort of book is how to keep the tension going. The main character, Railway Detective Robert Colbeck, is never in any danger. There are the false trails of course, and we have the puzzle of the murder and theft. The author has a go at upping the excitement with a ransome note for the silver train and the attempts to catch the murderer/thief through delivery of the ransome. This works to an extent. But I did want more Victoriana, the feel of the time; there were lots of train rides but no problems, hardly credible, there'd be breakdowns, halts in out of the way places etc. And I wanted richer characters too. A book to read on a beach or train - and leave it there. less

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