The Railway Viaduct

When the dead body of an unidentified man is flung from a train as it crosses Sankey Viaduct, the railway operators quickly call in Robert Colbeck of Scotland Yard. His previous successes at solving crimes connected with rail travel have earned him the nickname “The Railway Detective”. This time Colbeck's investigation will take him to France, where a British contractor is constructing a new rail line for the French.

This book's plot feels forced. The author seems more interested in providing readers with a detailed history of railway engineering than in constructing a detailed puzzle for readers to solve along with the fictional detective. The detective is becoming more obnoxious in each subsequent novel in the series. I believe show more I'll stop with this one. show less

I got bored with this one, I found the middle a bit of a slog. I think it's because Sargent Leeming didn't feature as much, so there wasn't the interaction between the Inspector and his Sargent. It got better once we knew who the bad guys were and you could follow the game of cat and mouse. It was good, but I'm always disappointed when the guilty party evades "legal" justice, even though they get justice of another sort.

This is the third novel in the Railway Detective series set in the mid 19th century. They are settling into a familiar pattern, fairly decent page turners set against an interesting historical background, though with slightly annoyingly clichéd central characters whose personal idiosyncrasies are rather beaten over the reader's head at every opportunity, especially those of Chief Superintendent Tallis, Inspector Colbeck's boss, and Sergeant Learning, Colbeck's underling. The dialogue still reads as rather stilted to me. The plot was interesting enough, being based around sabotage at a French railway project being built by an English engineer, but felt rather similar to the plot of the first novel, as it involves a wealthy man, Sir show more Marcus Hetherington, trying to carry out the sabotage through others, albeit that his motives were based on nationalism rather than the Luddite attitudes of the landowner in the first novel. I think I'll pick up following novels in the series only when they are going cheap. show less

I wasn't sure if I'd like this but it was a fascinating history lesson about the development of the railways across Europe and the pivotal role Britain paid, especially Thomas Brassey who built a third of the French railways in the mid-nineteenth century and Thomas Crampton who designed and built many of the locomotives. I was unaware of either so I enjoyed learning some industrial history and the plot was almost incidental to my enjoyment. The novel is well researched and plotted and involves Brassey as a key character as he is building one of his many French railways. Essentially it is a murder mystery and owes much to simmering English distrust of the French who they had beaten not many years previously at Waterloo. Recommended for show more anyone enjoys a good plot built on historical fact. show less

The Railway Viaduct starts off with an artist painting a ground's eye view of the Sankey Viaduct when a train passes over it and a man's body falls from a car into the water. Railway Detective Robert Colbeck is tasked to solve the murder. His investigations take him and his crew of quirky co-workers across the channel to France, where a British entrepreneur is expanding that country's rail lines, and employing a huge crew of Irish migrant workers to do so. As Colbeck gets closer to the solution, he discovers that the fate of the man on the train is linked to much larger matters.

Meanwhile, maverick Irish police officer Brendan Mulryne must prove himself to a haughty, distrusting superior and, in his free time, Colbeck pursues his show more relationship with Madeleine Andrews by asking her to help him get closer to one of the suspects. But as he pursues the viaduct murderer, he also courts increasing danger.

This is the third book in the Victorian era Railway Detective series. The characters are well written and interesting. I enjoy reading historical mysteries set in the Victorian period. I've learned quite a bit about trains as well. I definitely plan to read the other books in this enjoyable series. show less

This was an enjoyable read. Yes, some of the characters are a little stereotypical, but the background is interesting and the book captures the spirit of the times well. This won't tax you too much to read, but a fairly limited number of characters makes it possible to read for relaxation - not a bad thing...

Another Victorian era police procedural set in the early days of the railways. This time Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called in to investigate a murder on the Sankey Viaduct, but their hunt for the murderer takes them to the construction site for a new railway line in France. The construction company is British, but the navvies come from all over Europe, adding a new dimension to the problems of investigating murder.

I thought the first book in this series suffered from a bad case of "my research, let me show you it", but here the background material is seamlessly woven in to provide some wonderful world-building. Lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to the next one.