While thousands of Britons fight in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy are on hand to delve into the complex and sinister cases that arise.A Bespoke Murder: May 1915. In London the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots. Among the victims is the tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop. Bu...

Joel Heygate is the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David's railway station. So when the charred remains of a body are discovered in the embers of the town's annual Bonfire Night celebration, everyone is horrified to discover that they belong to Mr Heygate.Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Victor Leeming are dispatched to Exeter with all due haste, and quickly unearth a number of suspects. But as Colbeck closes in on the killer, he finds himself in mor...

St Mary's Church, Spondon. A little girl playing hide-and-seek jumps into a freshly-dug grave to find a dead man already occupying it. It is the body of Cedric Norton, a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming travel to Derbyshire to investigate.

December 1860. Headed for the morning shift at the Swindon Locomotive works is an army of men pouring out of terraced houses built by the GWR, a miniature town and planned community that aims to provide for its employees from cradle to grave. Unfortunately, boiler smith Frank Rodman is headed for the grave sooner than he'd expected, or he will be once his missing head is found.Colbeck, the Railway Detective, finds his investigation into Rodman's murder mired in contradictions. Was ...

York, 1865. A passenger train stands ready to depart amid the bustle at the station. The flurry of passengers and porters, the swooping pigeons and barking dogs are thrown into a state of turmoil when an explosion rips through the brake van of the train, killing guard Jack Follis.In response to a summons from the North Eastern Railway, Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are sent to investigate. Was it an accident, deliberate vandalism or targeted murder? The longer the i...

Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and must contend with old enemy Superintendent Rory McTurk to uncover the criminals behind the disaster.

October 1854. As an autumnal evening draws to a close, crowds of passengers rush onto the soon to depart London to Brighton Express. A man watches from shadows nearby, grimly satisfied when the train pulls out of the station.Chaos, fatalities and unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails on the last leg of its journey. What led to such devastation, and could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck, dubbed the 'railway detective...

Following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers are thrown about, animals escape into the night and the future of the circus looks uncertain.When the body of a woman is discovered in woodland next to the derailment, Inspector Colbeck is despatched to lend assistance, believing the two incidents might be connected. It is up ...

As a train speeds over the Sankey Viaduct, the dead body of a man is hurled into the canal below. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming take charge of their most complex and difficult case yet. Hampered by the fact that the corpse has nothing on him to indicate his identity, they are baffled until a young woman comes forward to explain that the murder victim, Gaston Chabal, is an engineer, working on a major rail link in France. As the case takes on an international dimensio...

Three powerful Norman lords and a dispossessed Saxon thegn watch their steeds race close to the forest of Woodstock, each lusting for a win. But the first horse past the post has an empty saddle and his rider is lying in a copse with a knife in his back. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, Domesday commissioners on behalf of the King, are guests of the Sheriff of Oxford while they settle a land dispute. But soon their attentions are focused on a stretch of grass outside Woodstock where a murd...

London, February 1918. A burglary in Limehouse in the small hours of the morning has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy hasten to the scene where attempts at talking the men into surrendering have been met with stony silence. When the door is eventually battered down, Keedy bravely leads the way in. Then a gunshot is heard: Keedy has been hit.

Get the latest mystery in the bestselling Railway Detective series ...On a train bound for Portsmouth, an elegant woman shares a compartment with the lecherous Giles Blanchard. It is a lucky encounter for her, as she steps off the train after picking his pocket and in possession of scandalous material for a potential blackmail. It is a less fortuitous meeting for Blanchard, who will never reach his home on the Isle of Wight alive.D...