Created by Andrew Martin
A train man to the core, JIM STRINGER finally becomes an official “private eye” (after acting as an amateur sleuth in his first two adventures) when he’s given the title of railroad detective for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in The Lost Luggage Porter (2008), the third book in this entertaining series that begins in turn-of-the-(last)-century England and follows Jim into (and out of) the trenches of the first World War.
But don’t worry–everywhere that Stringer goes, be it Lancashire, the battlefields of France or even the Middle East in The Baghdad Railway Club (2012) and the sub-Continent in Night Train to Jamalpur (2013)–murder is sure to follow. Even when he’s no longer a private eye.
There are several cozyish touches, including plenty of soapy froth about Jim and his on-going relationship with his suffragette girlfriend (and later wife) Lydia, but there’s more than enough gritty steam, two-fisted action, and moral dilemmas in his cases to leave a pleasantly modern hard-boiled aftertaste.
In fact, the “Steam Detective” books remind me, both in their approach and their historical sweep, of Allan Levine’s Sam Klein.
NOVELS
- The Necropolis Railway (2002) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- The Blackpool Flyer (2004) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- The Lost Luggage Porter (2006) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- Murder at Deviation Junction (2007) | Buy this book
- Death on a Branch Line (2009) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- Last Train to Scarborough (2009) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- The Somme Stations (2011) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- The Baghdad Railway Club (2012) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- Night Train to Jamalpur (2013) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
- Powder Smoke (2012) | Buy this book | KIndle it!
