The iron tracks that make up a rail network are formidable and unbroken. The filament that links the "railway detective" to the mode of transport that gives him his branding is but a gossamer in comparison.
Perhaps that is just being pernickity - but in this mystery, the steam train plays a nominal role, merely providing a means for detectives to head to the scene of the crime in Yorkshire (oh, and the blood-curdling means to cull a colonel).
I am late to this popular series and I suspect previous outings have been more train-centric.
Either way I shall not be buying a return ticket to Insp Robert Colbeck. Things are, ironically, too pedestrian.
That is not to say this is not a serviceable whodunnit with plenty of suspects, red herrings and secrets. The author immerses himself thoroughly in the mid-Victorian setting and there is sufficient coal to fire the engine (as they say).
The story is this: Colbeck leaves London for the bucolic north when an old friend of his boss meets a train head on.
The suicide of stuffy Col Aubrey Tarleton is prompted by the disappearance of his wife and this void is promptly filled with busybodies, frenemies, blind alleys and poisonous whisperings.
The final solution comes out of nowhere, which is always something of an annoyance, and the characters are close to caricature but, like the trains of the Great Northern Railway, they provide the requisite means to get from here to there.
– From May 2011
