Prior to starting this blog, I read quite a few books by Marston: 3 novels from the Railway Detective series, 3 from the Nicholas Bracewell series and 1 novel from the Doomsday series. However, it was over a decade until I returned to their work, reading this short story collection earlier this year, which is part of the Railway Detective series. It is not a series I remembered anything about before starting this anthology, so it was interesting to read in the preface about the author’s family connection to locomotives and how they were a key part of his childhood. The preface also makes the salient point that:
‘Railways were the defining phenomenon of the Victorian age, transforming lives in a way that was unimaginable beforehand. They had a profound effect on the nature of crime, enabling the villain to flee the scene very quickly, and by the same token, giving the police increased mobility. Crimes on the railway itself grew steadily in number.’
Story No. 1: ‘Wetting the Coal’
Two train workers get a nasty surprise when they are topping up a train’s coal supply, as a corpse has been added to one of the coal trolleys. It had been pre-filled, a sure sign something suspicious was afoot. I think the reader knows a body is going to turn up imminently, but the anticipation is good here. Inspector Colbeck and Detective Sergeant Victor Leeming are dispatched to investigate, and Leeming’s dislike of trains is humorously contrasted with Colbeck’s enthusiasm for them. This is best seen in their dialogue as the third person narration is little bit too didactic in tone, with a tendency to tell rather than show the reader things:
‘He had a rooted objection to rail travel. When they arrived at their destination, however, he would forget the discomfort and throw himself into the investigation with alacrity. For that reason, Colbeck did not try to reconcile him to a railway system that had revolutionised the lives of the whole nation.’
The title interestingly links to the final lines of the story. The mystery itself has few suspects and there was insufficient information provided about a certain clue, which has to be told to the reader during the revealing of the solution. The characterisation of the female characters was also not very nuanced.
Story No. 2: ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’
A painting by Tuner is stolen in a highway robber style when it is unloaded from a train. The name of the painting is the title of the story. The thieves send a ransom note and the police plan to capture the thieves during the payoff. It is bizarre that only two policemen are involved in this whole operation. I liked how Inspector Colbeck’s wife is able to assist in the case, although once more this story is weakened by its tendency to tell rather than show.
Story No. 3: ‘The Railway Church’
A church warden called Simon Gillard begins this tale by going through his normal Sunday routine to open St George the Martyr Church. We are told that:
‘There were people in Wolverton who sneered at the church of St George the Martyr because it had been built fifteen years earlier by the London to Birmingham Railway company to supply the spiritual needs of their employees and their families. Critics disliked what thy saw as a church built on traditional lines with a decidedly utilitarian air about it. it blended in with the terraces of small, plain, relentlessly uniform railway houses. Some argued that the church had history, no grandeur, no sense of being on consecrated ground and no right to be there.’
This was an interesting reminder of how businesses and industries interacted with communities more widely in the 19th century. It is not long until Simon finds a blood-soaked corpse in front of the altar. The unpopular victim was a man called Claude Exton.
Inspector Colbeck comes across as sanctimonious and didactic at times, which was less appealing. I don’t think the solution is one you can guess, as the killer is not on the page enough for their true character to be hinted at or clued properly. The solution feels rather sprung upon the reader. Moreover, the reader is not privy to some parts of the police investigation until the end of the story.
Story No.4: ‘A Family Affair’
This story is centred on Caleb Andrews, a retired railway worker and Inspector Colbeck’s father-in-law. He has an embarrassing moment when he goes to pay for a drink when he finds someone has stolen his wallet. Going back over recent events he believes the robbery took place outside Euston Station. Caleb decides to solve the case on his own yet ends up getting arrested instead. This story depicts how the creation of train stations made a perfect setting for pick pockets to apply their trade. I don’t think you can anticipate the ending of this one, although I think this is because it operates more like a police procedural. I think this story is the most humorous of the collection. I found I enjoyed the reduced page time of Inspector Colbeck and that I liked the secondary characters more.
Story No. 5: ‘The Hat Trick’
A couple of newly weds are trying to locate the exact spot they got engaged, during a country walk. Their journey takes them near a railway embankment, and they witness a man fall out of a moving train carriage headfirst. Did he just stumble trying to catch his hat? Or was he pushed? We get some more of Inspector Colbeck’s painful platitudes. For example, Leeming says to him:
“Tug-of-war is the only sport that I was any good at. When I was a young constable, I was part of a winning team.”
“To some degree,” said Colbeck, “you still are. We’re engaged in a non-stop tug-of-war against the criminal fraternity. We have to fight hard to retain our footing.”
Such a response just feels unnatural and heavy handed with its metaphor. It makes it feel forced. Colbeck also shoehorns in the new modern meaning for the term “hat trick”. It is not ideal that Colbeck is able to read a witness statement that we are not privy to and therefore it is not surprising that he comes across as a magician in the way he comes up with solution for this case. There is one aspect of the murder method/plan that Colbeck does not explain, which left me puzzled, wondering how it was managed.
Story No. 6: ‘Helping Hand’
Detective Superintendent Tallis is having a lunch time constitutional and ends up breaking a mob who are badgering a homeless man and his dog. The man is called Joel Anstey, and he was injured in the Crimea, so Tallis takes pity on him and gets Inspector Colbeck to give him a few days work as a gardener. This is liable to upset their existing gardener, Nathaniel Draycott, who ends up accusing Joel of stealing his garden tools. The solution to this one is rather obvious and there is not much plot to the story.
Story No. 7: ‘Songs for a Swedish Nightingale’
Inspector Colbeck and Victor Leeming have been tasked with providing police protection to a rich and successful Swedish opera singer, Jenny Lind. She has been receiving threatening letters and alas once she disembarks at Birmingham train station, shots are fired, and Jenny is kidnapped. Inspector Colbeck makes very large mental leaps to figure out the type of person who kidnapped and why they did so. With no evidence to go on, he nevertheless finds Jenny, but I don’t understand how he did this.
Story No. 8: ‘Suffer Little Children’
Ben Grosvenor is doling out the wages as a pay clerk for the London and Northwestern Railway, when he discovers that he has been robbed. Running parallel to this plot is an outing Caleb Andrews and his daughter take Victor Leeming’s two kids and wife on. Their trip is to the train sheds. The kids are a bit of a handful, yet their mischievous behaviour has positive consequences, in a way you’ll probably predict. There is not much in the way of detection in this story, with the usual trap to catch the thief. The secondary characters in this story were of greater interest to me than Inspector Colbeck.
Story No. 9: ‘The Missionary’
There is a long run up to the case in this story. Tallis has been away to a funeral, and he is comforted by a missionary on the train ride home. Colbeck and Leeming have been filling in for him during his absence. Not too surprisingly, the missionary is revealed to be a con man and humiliated by the experience Tallis tries to catch him, but fails, so he privately enlists the help of Colbeck. This the inspector is able to do incredibly easily as he has a contact who can put him on the right track.
Story No. 10: ‘On Guard’
The introductory character in these stories is usually either the person who finds the body or they become the victim themselves. In this tale it is the latter role, as train guard, Jake Fullard is bumped off whilst at work. Initially it seems like the guard was accidentally killed by livestock which escaped from a train. Yet Colbeck is not fooled. The solution is darker than some of the others in this collection. However, the way the narrative told means the ending lacks the shock and drama it should provide.
Story No. 11: ‘The Barber of Raven Glass’
This time the crime takes place in Raven Glass in Cumberland. A train carriage has been set on fire and there are the remains of somebody inside. It is meant to be a woman, but her identity is not confirmed and this forms the main part of the investigation, although I felt little real detective work occurred in this tale.
Story No. 12: ‘Puffing Billy’
There is an early locomotive that Madeline, Colbeck’s wife, wants to paint in Northumberland and a weekend holiday with her husband makes this possible. But Colbeck finds it hard to be away from work, so he jumps at the chance to do some sleuthing when his wife’s sketch pad is stolen in their hotel. It seems quite a few thefts have been happening at the hotel lately. This story has more detecting in it, and I liked Madeline’s role in this.
Story No. 13: ‘The End of the Line’
This is the last story in the collection, but it was the first short story that Marston wrote, using it as a way of giving the character of Inspector Colbeck a trial run. A GWR director, called Matthew Proudfoot, commandeers a train, getting them to add a first-class carriage for him to travel on. He instructs the driver to take him to Reading, despite the train not officially stopping there. By the time the train arrives at Reading, Proudfoot is dead, stabbed to death. In contrast to the other short stories Colbeck appears in, in which he is a stickler for the rules and is didactic in conversation, the inspector is a rebel and maverick in ‘The End of the Line’. It was quite surprising to hear Tallis say to him: ‘I want none of your usual eccentric methods, Inspector. I expect you to conduct this investigation properly. Bear one thing in mind at all times. Our reputation is at stake.” It is intriguing that the author did not continue the character in this line, instead choosing to make him a more respectable and to be honest duller detective.
Overall, I would say this anthology is a quick read and there are some enjoyable secondary characters, but I found the plots to be lacking.
Rating: 3/5