Books in the Railway Detective series

Derby Day at Epsom Downs. A multitude of people crowd to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds. With the nation a-flutter in the run up to this national event, a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder, fraud and race-fixing. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant are assigned to the case and are soon snarled up in a web of skulduggery stretching across the country. They are forced to ask themselves, just how much is someone prepared to hazard to win?

It is 1852, and Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Sergeant Victor Leeming are faced with their most difficult case to date. As a train speeds over the Sankey Viaduct, a man is hurled from a carriage into the canal below. It later transpires that he has been stabbed to death. This book is the third in the "Railway Detective" series.

'Edward Marston is a master of his craft' - Daily Mail

As crowds of passengers rush to make the departure of the London to Brighton Express, a man watches from the shadows nearby - Chaos, fatalities and unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not.

Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and must contend with old enemy Superintendent Rory McTurk to uncover the criminals behind the disaster. The motive for the crash is unclear, with suspects including the North British Railway, a group of sabbatarians and those with personal vendettas to enact. Colbeck and Leeming face further obstacles when the Railway announces a reward of GBP400 for information - soon they are pitched against criminals, the public and their own colleagues in their attempts to solve the case.Meanwhile, with the investigation stalling, the newly married Madeleine Colbeck and her father race to reach Inspector Colbeck with important information. Will they be in time to save the royal family before their train journey to Balmoral?

1857. On the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve - a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover, including cold-blooded murder.When the Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck learns that Oxley, his arch nemesis, has escaped, black memories of their shared past leave him no choice but to do his duty, whatever the cost. With the faithful Victor Leeming at his side, Colbeck must use all of his skills to track his elusive enemy. But could he have finally met his match?

The thrilling first case for the Railway DetectiveLondon 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.'A grand romp very much in the tradition of Holmes and Watson...packed with characters Dickens would have been proud of. Wonderful, well written.' Time Out

A perplexing new case for the Railway DetectiveOn the shocking discovery of a passenger's body on the Great Western Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scene. Faced with what initially appears to be a motiveless murder, Colbeck is intrigued by the murder weapon - a noose. When it emerges that the victim had worked as a public executioner, Colbeck realises that this must be intrinsically linked to the killer's choice of weapon. However, the further he delves into the case, the more mysterious it becomes. And when a second man is strangled by a noose on a train, Colbeck knows he must act quickly; can he catch the murderer before more lives are lost? Set in Victorian England and rich in historical detail, The Excursion Train will hold you captivated from the beginning to the end of its journey.

An exquisitely designed silver coffee-pot in the shape of a locomotive is on its way to Cardiff in the care of the young, talented silversmith, Hugh Kellow. It has been commissioned by wealthy ironmaster Clifford Tomkins for his acquisitive wife, who wants it to be the envy of all her friends - and enemies.But the coffee-pot is stolen. When a gruesome murder is committed at the Railway Hotel, Winifred Tomkins is distraught. Caring little for the dead silversmith, all she can think about is her missing treasure. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming of the Detective Department are summoned to Wales from London by telegraph and they are soon confronted by some additional crimes. The situation is complicated by the arrival of a famous theatre company and by revelations of illicit liaisons among members of the local high society. There is no shortage of suspects and Colbeck has to sift through layers of deceit to find the killer - before it is too late.

With academic disputes, sporting rivalry and a clandestine romance in play, the Railway Detective will have to disentangle the many threads of Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth of his death.

1862. A goods train is going through the Sapperton Tunnel when it hits a makeshift pen of sheep inexplicably set up near the exit. The animals are slaughtered by the impact whilst the train hits a pile of rocks and is derailed, seriously injuring the occupants. Inspector Colbeck is called in to investigate.

Halloween 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night on its way to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents, and this journey is no exception...

1861, East Anglia. When universally-admired Swarbrick, the man working to unify East Anglia's tangle of railway networks, is killed by a robber in a first-class carriage, Inspector Colbeck is brought in from London. But is this the act of a bungling burglar, a business rival, a disgruntled son, or a jealous lover?

December 1860. An army of men heads for the morning shift at the Swindon Locomotive works. Unfortunately, boiler smith Frank Rodman is headed for the grave sooner than he'd expected, or he will be once his missing head is found. Colbeck, the Railway Detective, finds his investigation into Rodman's murder mired in contradictions.

The Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to their next show when a collision causes pandemonium: passengers thrown about and animals escaping. When the body of a woman is discovered nearby, Inspector Colbeck is desperate to lend assistance, believing the two incidents might be connected. Who is the woman and who is targeting the Circus?

1860, Wimborne, Dorset. Rebecca Tullidge, miserably married, is having an affair with a railway officer, who she finds dead on the railway tracks. Mayoral hopeful, Mr Feltham calls for the Railway Detective to solve the hideous crime. With a pregnant wife at home, Colbeck must work at speed if he is to return in time for the birth.

1859. St Mary's Church, Spondon. A little girl playing hide-and-seek jumps into a freshly-dug grave to find a dead man already occupying it. It is the body of a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming travel to Derbyshire to investigate.

Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his neighbours in the small Yorkshire village of South Otterington - as much for his heroic feats in the army as for his social position. So the community is left stunned when Tarleton, deliberately, walks into the path of a speeding train.

Summer, 1858. Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit Imogen's Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at the terminus to greet them. All the passengers alight at Oxford, but the two women are nowhere to be seen. The train is searched and the coachman swears he saw them join first class, however they seem to have vanished into thin air.When he learns his daughter is missing, Sir Marcus Burnhope contacts Scotland Yard for help. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are assigned to the case and are advised to tread carefully around Sir Marcus - an MP who is used to getting what he wants.With witnesses confirming the impossible - that the women boarded the train - is it a simple case of runaways? Or is there a larger, more sinister conspiracy at work? The Railway Detective must unravel the mystifying web of their disappearance before Imogen and Rhoda vanish into oblivion for good.

Guy Fawkes Night, 1857. Joel Heygate is the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David's railway station - an impressive figure of a man replete with frock coat and top hat, bushy eyebrows and walrus moustache. But when the charred remains of a body are discovered in the embers of the town's annual Bonfire Night celebration, everyone is horrified when it becomes clear that they belong to Mr Heygate.The South Devon Railway contacts Scotland Yard for their assistance, and Superintendant Edward Tallis sends the Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Victor Leeming to Exeter with all due haste. They quickly unearth three suspects, but are they missing something? It is only when Heygate's diary turns up unexpectedly that the truth becomes clear and a fourth suspect emerges. As Colbeck closes in on the killer, he finds himself in mortal danger - can justice prevail? Or will his beloved Madeleine be robbed of a husband on the very eve of their marriage?