Title: The Railway Detective by Edward MarstonGenre: Fiction, Historical
Rating: 4/5
It's 1851 in London, England, and the country is preparing for the Great Expedition, which will celebrate the engineering triumphs of the railway. However, not everyone views the railway in the same positive light, and a group of men successfully rob a mail train, injuring the driver and forcing the engine to crash. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck soon realizes that this is just part of a larger plan and he must pit his intelligence against the criminal masterminds in order to prevent the unthinkable.
Overall, I enjoyed The Railway Detective, though I found it a bit slow at the beginning. It's a book that keeps you intrigued with its talented language, not one that grips you from the very first line or keeps you guessing at the identity of the villains.
I found Marston's writing style subtle yet clever. He had a great deal of historical information woven throughout the book, informing the reader of relevant facts necessary to the story but at no point did it ever feel like I was reading a history lecture. In fact, I quite enjoyed learning about the railways and locomotives of the mid-nineteenth century, and at points it helped cement the notion of Inspector Colbeck's intelligence and his desire to continue learning new things.
Inspector Colbeck was an intriguing character, consistently well-dressed, which was often criticized by the other characters, and extremely observant. He actually reminded me of Sherlock Holmes in many ways, though I've been informed by a fellow book nerd that's because they're both "proper" detectives. My only complaint with the character occurs later in the book when he concludes something based on the "atmosphere" of the room rather than any actual evidence. And the romantic in me really enjoyed the buildup to a relationship between Colbeck and Madeleine Andrews, and its something I look forward to seeing develop in the later books in the series.
In the end, The Railway Detective is a book that I'd recommend to all mystery lovers and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
