Winter, 1906. After his adventures as an amateur sleuth, Jim Stringer is now
an official railway detective, working from York Station for the mighty North
Eastern Railway Company. But he's not a happy man.
As the rain falls incessantly on the
city's ancient, neglected streets, the
local paper carries a story highly
unusual by York standards: two broth-
ers have been shot to death.
Meanwhile, on the station platforms,
Jim Stringer meets the Lost Luggage
Porter, humblest among the employees
of the North Eastern Railway company.
He tells Jim a tale which leads him to
the roughest part of town, a place where
the police constables always walk in
twos. Jim is off on the trail of pick-
pockets, 'station loungers' and other
small fry of the York underworld. But
then in a tiny, one-room pub with a
badly smoking fire he enters the orbit
of a dangerous, disturbed villain who
is playing for much higher stakes.
Andrew Martin grew up in
Yorkshire. After qualifying as a
barrister he became a freelance
journalist, in which capacity he
has tended to write about the
north, class, trains, seaside
towns and eccentric individuals
rather than the doings of the
famous, although he did once
loop the loop in a biplane with
Gary Numan. He has also
learned to drive steam
locomotives, albeit under very
dose supervision. In addition
to the Jim Stringer Steam
Detective series, his books
include Bilton and The Bobby
Dazzlers, which Tim Lott
hailed as 'truly unusual
- a comic novel that actually
makes you laugh:
Gilbert Adair
The Act of Roger Murgatroyd
Michael Dibdin
See Review by
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger