The Somme Stations

WINNER OF THE ELLIS PETERS AWARD

'Superb.' Lancashire Evening Post
'Richly satisfying.' Sunday Telegraph


On the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival - even before they departed for France, a member of Jim's unit had been found dead.


During the stand-off that follows, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells rain down. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins to point towards Jim himself . . .

'The real achievement of The Somme Stations is the bravura picture the reader is given of men in war - a war receding in time as the last participants die, but which Martin subtly allows to stand in for all conflicts.' Barry Forshaw, Independent



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