Imbarcatevi in un viaggio avvincente nella Londra vittoriana, dove l'era del vapore e dei binari ferroviari fa da sfondo a misteri accattivanti. Questa serie segue le acute indagini dei detective di Scotland Yard mentre svelano crimini complessi sullo sfondo di un mondo in rapida evoluzione. È una miscela avvincente di intrighi storici, ambientazioni suggestive e la ricerca della giustizia in un'epoca di trasformazione.
1851 and the city of London anticipates the grand opening of the Great Expedition. The London to Birmingham mail train is looted and derailed and Detective Colbeck fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A silver teapot, a train journey, a gruesome murder, and even more crimes will test the deductive talents of the skilled Inspector Colbeck!
Yorkshire 1855. When Colonel Aubrey Tarleton walks into the path of a speeding train, he is crushed to death. Inspector Robert Colbeck is immediately put on the case. Tarleton's wife had recently gone missing, but was the colonel responsible for her disappearance? It's up to Colbeck and his trusty sergeant Victor Leeming to uncover the truth.
Inspector Robert Colbeck has his work cut out for him when his nemesis Jeremy Oxley escapes while en route to his execution. A game of cat and mouse ensues that will bring the Railway Detective far from his home in Victorian London across the sea to the new World and New York.
Guy Fawkes Night, 1857. Joel Heygate was the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David s railway station. So the town is horrified when his remains are discovered in the embers of the annual Bonfire Night celebration. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck unearths three suspects, but are they missing something?
A train veers off the rails near the Scottish border and plunges into the lake below. Inspector Colbeck is summoned to investigate and finds that a large, complex conspiracy may be afoot.
Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are summoned to Burnhope Manor when young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda have disappeared on a non-stop train journey to Oxford.
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.
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.
1860: Following a string of successful performances, 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 cigar. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers are 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.
December 1860. With Christmas fast approaching, the last thing Inspector Colbeck needs is a complex case. As he wrestles with one crime, he is alarmed to hear of another - the abduction of Superintendent Tallis. Colbeck and Leeming find themselves raceing to solve a brutal murder before rushing to Kent in a bid to save the superintendent's life.
1861, East Anglia. Alone in a first-class carriage, the Swarbricks are robbed at gunpoint, but when the universally-admired Swarbrick fights back, the train robber takes more than money and jewellery, killing the man working to unify East Anglia's tangle of railway networks. Inspector Colbeck is brought in from London, as the only detective in Britain with enough expertise for the job. But as Swarbrick's glowing reputation begins to crumble, the line of investigation isn't clear: Is this the act of a bungling burglar, a business rival, a disgruntled son, or a jealous lover? Whoever it is, they are determined to involve Colbeck in their fight. Is the Railway Detective following the right track or will he need to switch points to bring the murderer to justice?
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...
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.
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.
An eagerly awaited collection of brand new, specially commissioned short stories from the Master of historical crime fiction, featuring his quick witted Railway Detective, Inspector Colbeck.