‘Murder on the Great Northern Railway’ by Edward Marston

Published by Allison & Busby,
18 September 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903222-7 (HB)

In April 1867 a large wooden box is loaded onto a train at King’s Cross bound for Lincoln. It is accompanied by an escort. At Peterborough a diversion on the platform allows the box to be stolen. The escort is short dead. The box contained a priceless silver model of Lincoln Cathedral, the work of the eminent London-based but Lincoln-born silversmith Gregory Tomkins and is a gift to his home city. Its disappearance is particularly upsetting as, because of declining health, the model is likely to be Tomkins’s final work. The Dean of Lincoln Cathedral turns to Scotland Yard.

Murder on the Great Northern Railway is, I believe, the 24th novel in Marston’s admired ‘Railway Detective Series’. It follows its predecessors in that Detective Inspector Colbeck, the Railway Detective himself, is summoned to solve the mystery. I have read a number of early novels in the series (with later ones awaiting me on the shelves) and both the career and life of Colbeck have moved on since I last came across him. His trusty sidekick Sergeant Leeming is still in post but is joined by two further detectives, Eric Boyce and Alan Hinton (as a follower of Derby County FC I was delighted to come across the latter, a namesake of one of the great wingers of the 1970s!). Colbeck’s artist wife, Madeleine, is now a mother and has a close friend by the name of Lydia Quayle. More of them in due course. Madeleine’s father, a former employee of the London and Northwestern Railway, continues to denigrate all other companies and blames the Great Northern Railway for the model’s disappearance.

As with others in the series, this is not a whodunnit. The reader discovers the villains early on, and the enjoyment is seeing how Colbeck tracks them down and in this instance how he proceeds when the expected ransom demand arrives. Although many of his enquiries are centred on Peterborough, Colbeck bases himself in Lincoln where the relative chaos of the annual horse fair does nothing to help his investigation. He also has to cope with his ever-interfering superior Superintendent Tallis (although Tallis proves his worth towards the end) and there is a poignant episode where the superintendent wonders whether he is getting too old for his sort of work. Further poignancy is added by descriptions of the despair of Gregory Tomkins as he faces the loss of what he believes will be his last major work. In London there is also a side-plot concerning Lydia Quayle’s domestic security caused by worries that a former servant has burglarious intentions. Madeleine supports her wisely.

This is yet another thoroughly enjoyable novel from Edward Marston. The action moves along quickly, with short scenes constantly switching from one area of the plot to another, so it is – in the best sense – a rapid read. The characters are convincing, and the period detail adds much to the story (‘Thanks are due to the telegraph system’ Colbeck says at the end), although I believe I am correct in saying that in 1867 Peterborough was in Northamptonshire and not Cambridgeshire (that didn’t happen until 1974). As a native of Lincolnshire who went to school in Peterborough, Murder on the Great Northern Railway strikes a chord with me as I’m sure it will with others, and I am very pleased to recommend it. I must get round to the other books in the series that I have yet to read.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Edward Marston (A pseudonym used by Keith Miles) was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over thirty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers' Association. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children's books or literary criticism, plays or biographies.

www.edwardmarston.com

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers Association.