Just Finished Reading: Blood on the Tracks – Railway Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (FP: 2018) [383pp]
I thought that I’d end my set of railway themed reading with this moderately chunky BLCC shorts collection, and I was far from disappointed. Over the 15 stories contained within its covers I was pleased that hardly one left me wanting, indeed most of them left me wanting more. A case [pun unintended!] in point was The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway by Baroness Orczy. I knew her of Scarlett Pimpernel fame but didn’t realise she also wrote short crime mysteries. On further investigation I discovered, to my delight, that this mystery was part of a collection spanning 3 whole volumes of the ‘Teahouse Detective’. Much more to follow, I assure you!
An early intriguing tale, which I greatly enjoyed, was The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel by L T Meade and Robert Eustace. Without giving TOO much away this hinged on a bit of scientific knowledge and I managed to guess the cause without ruining the subsequent discovery. Interestingly there was both a non-Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle called The Man with the Watches penned in the interim between Holme’s ‘death’ and his return as well as a Sherlock Holmes tale penned by Ronald Knox called The Adventure of the First-Class Carriage!
Having enjoyed a superbly plotted novel by Freeman Wills Crofts I was pleased to discover that he was also the master of the short story with The Level Crossing as an apparently perfect murder of a blackmailer begins to unravel almost from the first moment. Of course, a classic crime stories can’t avoid the odd, and sometimes very odd, Gothic or supernatural tale and I really enjoyed the slightly creepy (in a good way) tale of a hangman on his way home in The Railway Carriage by F Tennyson Jesse.
Without going into each and every tale, this was a cracking set of short crime/mystery stories either set on trains or associated with them. If you have an interest in either trains or classic mysteries this is most definitely the book for you. With authors as varied and exalted as Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and Sapper you won’t be disappointed. Most definitely recommended.
[Highest page count of the year so far: 383pp][+35pp]
6 comments:
Ooh, Sayers! I keep meaning to try her.
Lord Peter Wimsey??
Yep. I've checked out a couple of books from that series before but don't think I've finished one.
I know of him (as a character) but never read anything with him in. Maybe at some point....
This sounds like an interesting collection, with some authors I'm familiar with and others that I'm not! I've read one or two of Orczy's Teahouse Detective stories in other collections, but not the complete volumes.
It's a VERY good collection of surprisingly varied stories. I was impressed by many of them and, as usual, its a great way to sample new authors. I'll definitely be looking out for the Teahouse Detective series. I was most impressed by the way the main character reasoned his way to the solution!
Post a Comment