When I won the 7th installment in Librarything's Early Reviewers Programme, I thought I'd better get started on the series. I come from a family which love the railway, Dad's pretty much a trainspotter and even has a garden railway (which his grandson loves to play with!). We always try and travel by train as much as possible. I do like a good mystery, so when I saw the first book a few years ago, I thought "perfect"!
The Necropolis Railway is the first in the Jim Stringer railway mystery series. Jim is the son of a butcher, but he dreams of being a train driver. He finds a job on his local line, but gets his big opportunity when a Mr. Smith arranges a job for him in London a big railway company. Waterloo at the turn of the 20th Century is a dark and dangerous place, Stringer replaces a boy at the yard who was murdered and has trouble fitting in. The railway company also provides trains for the Necropolis Railway, and Jim soon starts transporting the bodies.
If you like trains, this is the book for you. Martin goes into a lot of detail about the railway, the protagonist, Jim Stringer is the early 20th Century version of a trainspotter. Stringer also speaks in the slang of the time, which, for me, adds a lot of humour and the OTT drama typical of books of that era.
A light mystery, good for a commuter.
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The second installment of Andrew Martin's Jim Stringer series is
The Blackpool Highflyer. Jim has moved back north and is working for the Lancashire and Yorkshire. Still not a driver, but working towards that, Jim's colleague is the rather dapper Clive, well-dressed, a hit with the ladies. The Stringers decide to rent out a room in their home to George, another up and coming lad, who works in the ticket office.
As the weather warms up, Clive and Stringer are to take mill workers on a jolly to Blackpool, unfortunately, this is when tragedy strikes. In the midst of turbulent times, socialist groups against mill owners and even the railway companys, who is to blame? Jim takes up the case when a split second decision leaves him emotionally involved.
I enjoyed picking up Jim's story, as well as the character of his wife being more fleshed out, she is no shrinking violet of a housewife. I look forward to reading more about her. Martin also does well to set the scene historically, the mills of northern England and the trips to the seaside towns.
As in The Necropolis Railway, there is a lot of train info here, Martin fairly peppers the text with trivia and jargon, but it never feels affected or as if it were getting in the way of the story. This is a light murder mystery, but the railway backdrop gives it its quirky edge.
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In
The Lost Luggage Porter, Stringer has left off engine work as a result of an accident. He signs up to be York's newest railway detective. After a meeting with the titular porter, Stringer is pointed in the direction of a criminal outfit operating around the station. Are Brains and the Blocker also mixed up in the recent murders, all three being somehow related with the railway?
Stringer's new chief decides to take advantage of his not being known locally, and gets him to work undercover to try and infiltrate the gang.
The encounter with th lost luggage porter sets in motion a chain of events, which will lead Stringer as far as Paris and put his life in danger. In this installment, we get more of an idea of Stringer's wife. Heavily pregnant, she is worried that the baby'll will be the end of her life. She is more involved than ever in the suffragette movement, causing friction between her and her father-in-law, who tries to 'help' her by sending her columns on household hints.
Another entertaining installment of the series, I look forward to book 4. As I said about the previous books, the charm for is in the backdrop of the railway.
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Murder at Deviation Junction, Jim is on a winter's trip with his family when the train makes an unscheduled stop and a body is uncovered.
We have moved on a couple of years, Stringer is up for promotion, but is up against his direct superior, who would prefer to see him shuffling papers. Stringer should be on the trail of a football thug, but can't keep away from the mysterious circumstances surrounding the discovered body of man who apparently committed suicide. As in previous books, Stringer jumps blindly into danger, following the trail of 5 men caught on film by the dead man, taking him to London and even as far north as Inverness.
Jim is showing his frustration about being so near the railways, but yet not allowed to drive the trains, but his growing family is banking on his promotion. His wife, Lydia, is moving up in the Co-operative, intent on bringing the family up, not helped by a drunk Jim pitching up at her Christmas do. I still wish the author would give Lily more print, as she is a great character.
The series is still entertaining for me, the trains and the penny dreadful style. It is a gentle mystery, one for a quiet afternoon on the sofa. Number 5 beckons.
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Death on a Branch Line : A chance meeting at York Station with a condemned man causes Jim Stringer to put off his trip to Scarborough with his wife to go to the small village of Adenwold instead. Hugh Lambert persuades Stringer, more by his manner than anything else, that he is innocent of murdering his father, and that his brother could be in danger. As Lambert's hanging is set for the Monday, Stringer only has a weekend to discover the true murderer.
Stringer and his wife, Lydia, stay at the inn while they try to get to the bottom of Sir George's murder. Adenwold is a sleepy village, whose decline has been accelerated by the coming of the railway. It is a village of its time, with the local lords, in the guise of the Lamberts, a cricket match, rabbit shooting, an eccentric station master with his toy soldiers and a ever-so hands on vicar. Add into the mix the heightening tension between the U.K. and Germany, and a man with papers in German, and you have all of the ingredients of a good mystery.
I enjoyed the book, especially the short time frame, which made the story move at a cracking pace. I am also giving this an extra half a star for Lydia finally getting the page time she deserves. In this, the fifth instalment of the Railway Detective series, Jim's wife is along for the ride, and gets stuck right into the mystery.
The next book is ready and waiting!
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The Last Train to Scarborough, number 6 in the Jim Stringer series. Jim's wife is pushing him to leave the Railway Police Force and to move into becoming a solicitor, but the Chief has one last job for him. A railway man has disappeared from a lodging house in Scarborough, and is presumed dead. Jim is sent to Scarborough posing as an engine man along with Tommy Nugent, a fellow member of the Chief's shooting club.
Paradise, the lodging house, is an odd place. It is run by the beautiful, but strange Miss Rickerby and her brother, Adam, who is not the full shilling. There are two other lodgers, Vaughan and Fielding, both of whom seem keen to befriend Stringer. All of them are under suspicion.
Martin uses a different technique to drive the plot forward, the narrative is split between Stringer trying to uncover the truth and him coming to on a boat under guard. So we have two mysteries, the disappearance of the railway man, who the captain of the boat is and why he is so interested in Stringer's deductions. It works well, keeping up the tension and suspense, also we get a look at a different kind of machine from the era, a steamboat.
I enjoyed this, and look forward to the next installment, The Somme Station, which I received through the Early Reviewers Programme.
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Labels: 11 in 11 Challenge, Early Reviewers, Jim Stringer, Librarything
In this, the 7th Jim Stringer book, WW1 is in full flow and a North Eastern Railway Battalion is being formed. Stringer signs up, and joins other railway men being trained in Spurn. The first part of the book deals with their training.
They are a mixed bag from Dawson, a porter, to two other railway coppers, Scholes and Flower, as well as Oamer from the ticket office and two underaged lads. They are joined by the Butler brothers, twins Roy and Andy, a pair of brutes ready for grunt work, and Oliver, who is looking out for them.
One of the youngsters, William, is found dead in the water, and suspicion falls on all of the men, none of which has an alibi. This cloud of suspicion hangs over them as they make their way to the front, being sent right up to the frontline. Stringer's railway experience is soon put to good use as he drives the small engines to supply the soldiers with shells and bring back the wounded. Despite being sent to the front, and the danger they are under, an MP, Thackeray, will not let the matter drop.
Similar in tone to the previous books, as Stringer tries to uncover the murderer under difficult circumstances. Martin does capture the time well, both the training and the reality of the front. It was interesting to read about the engines at the front, not something I had ever really heard of. Lydia gives us an insight into the situation back in Blighty, with women taking over the men's jobs, something I would like to have read more about. A good continuation of the series. (