The Blackpool Highflyer
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- 8,49 €
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- 8,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
'Jim Stringer, Steam Detective, rides the footplate again in this hot-as-coals whodunnit. Sabotage, sleuthing, suspicion and steam combine with Edwardian England and railways to create a detective novel in the grand tradition of detective novels.' Express
'This may well be the best fiction about the railways since Dickens.' Independent on Sunday
A superbly atmospheric thriller of sabotage, suspicion and steam, The Blackpool Highflyer brings a new twist to tales of Edwardian England and amateur sleuthing. Assigned to drive holidaymakers to the seaside resort of Blackpool in the hot summer of 1905, Jim Stringer is happy to have left behind the grime and danger of life in London. But his dreams of beer and pretty women are soon shattered - when his high-speed train meets a huge millstone on the line . . .
'A clear winner in literary crime writing . . . Dazzling attention to detail and quality writing from one of our best.' Daily Express
Praise for the Jim Stringer series:
'Breathe in the heady mixture of smoke, oil and steam - and the odd spot of real ale - and feel the crunch of cinders beneath your feet... you're in historic railway territory again.' Manchester Evening News
'Finely honed crime novels with plotting as precise as a Swiss watch.' Daily Express
'This series is, er, really building up a head of steam.' Observer
Readers love Jim Stringer, railway detective:
'It's hard to envisage anyone not warming to Jim Stringer.' Independent
'An unlikely sleuth - ingenuous, naive and a little anxious - but an endearing narrator, a solid bloke who'd be good company over a pint of stout down the pub.' Telegraph
'The best sleuth that 200 years of the railways have ever produced.' Independent on Sunday
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1905, Martin's second Jim Stringer mystery (after 2004's The Necropolis Railway) starts slowly but builds a head of steam like the monster locomotive Jim stokes for "Lanky," the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. A passenger dies when a huge grindstone on the tracks derails a train carrying the owner of Hind's Mill on an excursion to seaside Blackpool. Jim begins to suspect class warfare when a young socialist distributes tracts in Jim's hometown of Halifax, urging workers to shun holidays organized by mill owners. A fallen tree on another rail line further suggests conspiracy, as does the disappearance of smartly dressed Clive, the engine driver on Jim's next run. Lanky management's paltry 5 reward hardly seems likely to garner much information, so newlywed Jim turns to comely Lydia, a mill clerk he simply calls "the wife," for much needed help. Getting used to Jim's chatty Cockney narration takes time, but as the suspense rises, readers will be captivated.
