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by Andrew Martin (Author)
Bright and ambitious, young Jim Stringer moves from the English countryside to London deter- mined to become a railway man. It is 1903, the dawn of the Edwardian age, when steam runs the nation and the railways drive progress. Jim can't believe his luck to have gotten his foot in the door at South East Railway, run out of Waterloo Station. He finds, however, that his duties involve a graveyard shift, literally--a railway line that takes coffins from London morgues to the gigantic new cemeteries being dug in the city's outskirts. He also learns that his predecessor had disappeared and that his coworkers seem to have formed an instant loathing for him. Forced to live by his wits and to arrive at his own deductions--assisted by his landlady, for whom he falls-- he tries to figure out what is going on before he is issued a one-way ticket on the Necropolis Railway.
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Martin s debut, loaded with railway lore, pairs a lively, often macabre look at turn-of-the-century London with a bang-up mystery. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A classy potboiler . . . in the best formal traditions of Dickens and Collins (let alone Christie and Chandler)." The Times (London)
When railway man Jim Stringer moves to the garish and tawdry London of 1903, he finds his duties are confined to a mysterious graveyard line. Perplexingly, the men he works alongside have formed an instant loathing for him, and his predecessor has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Forced to live by his wits and assisted by his alluring landlady, he struggles to unearth the truth before he is issued a one-way ticket on the Necropolis Railway.
"An ingenious and atmospheric thriller . . . crackles with the idiom and slang of the period. An eccentric delight."--Daily Express (London)
"So diverting that reader and hero are swept off their feet into a noisy, steamy, antiquated world of great danger." The Guardian (Book of the Week)
ANDREW MARTIN was a Spectator (London) Young Writer of the Year. He lives in London.
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