Description:
Titles in this set:
1. The Railway Detective
2. The Iron Horse
3. Blood on the Line
4. Peril on the Royal Train
5. A Ticket to Oblivion
6. Timetable of Death
7. The Circus Train Conspiracy
8. A Christmas Railway Mystery
9. Slaughter in the Sapperton Tunnel
Description:
The Railway Detective
London, 1851. The London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, injuring the driver and others aboard. 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. Planned with military precision, this crime challenges the new Police Force to its limits and leads Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck to discover a tangled web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
As the momentum gains pace, Colbeck closes in on the criminal masterminds. But just as the police begin to think the villains are within their grasp, events take an unexpected turn - Madeleine Andrews, the beautiful daughter of the injured train driver, becomes an unwilling pawn in the criminals' game. In a final race against time, good and evil, new and old, are pitted against each other. But will the long arm of the law be quick enough?
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.
The Iron Horse
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?
Blood on the Line
The year is 1855, and on the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, con-man, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve: a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover, including committing cold-blooded murder.
Inspector Robert Colbeck is dreaming of his impending wedding to Madeleine Andrews as he enters Superintendent Tallis's office. When he learns that Oxley, his nemesis, has once again escaped, black memories of their shared past leave him no choice but to do his duty. No matter the cost, he must bring the murderous Oxley to justice once and for all.
But Jeremy Oxley is no ordinary adversary. He knows the law is on his trail and retreats to his favourite hunting ground: the complex web of railways, sinews of empire, where he can stalk his prey. It spells deadly peril for the famous Railway Detective.
With the faithful Victor Leeming at his side and the idealistic young Ian Peebles at his back, Colbeck must use all of his considerable skill to track his elusive enemy. But could Colbeck have finally met his match?
A thrilling chase across two continents, Blood on the Line brings the fascinating world of Victorian London vividly to life.
Peril on the Royal Train
Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. The Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his trusty Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from 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 pursue. Can Colbeck and Leeming crack the case before the Royal family makes their train journey to Balmoral?
A Ticket to Oblivion
Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit her Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at Oxford station where the train terminates, to greet them. Only they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the two women are nowhere to be seen. The train is searched and the coachman swears he saw them board onto first class, but they seem to have vanished into thin air.
When he learns his daughter is missing, Sir Marcus Burnhope contacts Scotland Yard for help and Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are assigned to the case. Is it a simple case of a run away? 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.
Timetable of Death
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 Cedric Norton, a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming travel to Derbyshire to investigate.
The Circus Train Conspiracy
Following a string of successful performances along the west coast, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Amongst the usual railway hubbub the animals have been loaded, the clowns, now incognito, are aboard and Mauro Moscardi himself is comfortable in a first-class compartment with a ciger. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers thrown about, animals escape into the night and the future of the circus looks uncertain.
When the body of a woman is discovered in woodland next to the derailment, Inspector Colbeck is despatched to lend assistance, believing the two incidents might be connected. It is up to Colbeck to put the pieces together to discover the identity of the nameless woman and unmask who is targeting Moscardi's Magnificent Circus.
A Christmas Railway Mystery
December 1860. The morning shift at Swindon Locomotive Works is about to begin and an army of men is pouring out of the nearby terraced houses built by the GWR. Frank Rodman should have been among them, but he is destined for the grave sooner than he might have expected, or he will be, once his missing head is found.
But Christmas is fast approaching, and the last thing Inspector Colbeck needs is a complex case, mired in contradictions. As he wrestles with one crime, he is alarmed to hear of another - the abduction of Superintendent Tallis. Colbeck and Leeming find themselves in a hectic race to solve a brutal murder before rushing off to Kent in a bid to save the superintendent's life.
Slaughter in the Sapperton Tunnel
Disaster strikes at the Sapperton Tunnel in Gloucestershire when a goods train collides with an unusual blockage on the line: seven sheep penned onto the tracks. Specially requested to investigate the carnage, Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are confronted with a bizarre case unlike anything they've encountered before.
Stephen Rydall, board member of the Great Western Railway that manages the route, is convinced this tragedy is a personal attack on him and fears for the safety of his shepherd, missing since the incident. Rydall has many enemies but, as Colbeck will soon discover, the man also has a closely guarded secret of his own
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