The Excursion Train (The Railway Detective #2) by Edward Marston

The Excursion Train (The Railway Detective #2) Reviews

• 
  Julie

  I truly enjoyed this mystery that partially takes place on a train. The time period is so well written that I did a double-take when I realized that it was first published in 2005 and not decades earlier!
  
  This is the second volume in the series and I intend to gradually make my way through the entire series, interspersing other books in between as I go. This story transported me back in time to England in 1852 and the attention to details of the time period anchored me there.
  
  For example: "The picture rail looked as if it had been painted that morning. She had even run a vigorous duster around the pot holding the aspidistra and over the black leading on the grate."
  
  At the beginning of the book, people are crowding on to an excursion train, which will carry them out of London, and on through rolling hills into the countryside, where a boxing match is to be held in a field. The fight is between two undefeated prize fighters (boxers who fight for money) at the height of their strength.
  
  The match takes place and "glancing up at the sky, Leeming saw a flock of birds flying in the general direction of London." This indicates that the fight has concluded, as these birds are "Carrier Pigeons [...] carrying word of the result." I had forgotten how people used Carrier Pigeons back in those days and it was fun to be reminded.
  
  I loved the playful humor such as, "I never expected to hear myself say this, Inspector, but I think that we should take a train."
  
  The characters are well written and I especially enjoyed reading about a young couple in the first blush of falling in love. "When they sat opposite each other near the window, he beamed at her, still unable to believe that she had come all the way from London to see him." How I love to be the cause of someone's smile!
  
  The following quote speaks to the thoroughness of Inspector Colbeck (The Railway Detective) who appears to leave no stone unturned: "He dug away until he unearthed things that I never thought he'd find."
  
  Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't include my favorite tea quote: ""A cup of tea would be welcome," said Colbeck."
• 
  Paul

  Edward Marston is a guilty pleasure. Simple, easy to read mysteries, perfect when you fancy an unchallenging but enjoyable read!
• 
  Malcolm

  The railway detective’s second outing is a fine piece of gentle Victorian crime detection – not that the crimes are all that gentle, nor their reason, but Edward Marston has a measured hand, a fine sense of the era, a good grasp of the impact of technology in Victorian London and of the social consequences of the new transportation technology. London in 1850s was going through rapid development, population growth and expansion, the shift toward suburbia was beginning and the effects of rapid industrialisation being felt. Trains were making the country smaller, as travel times reduced and the Home Counties in particular drawn into the city’s daily life.
  
  In this instance, we find ourselves in the world of prize fighting (that is, illegal bareknuckle boxing where there were vast sums to be made and lost), with some of mid-Victorian England’s most important sports stars (the modern world of football celebrity is far from the first instance of sports stardom) when a down at heel cobbler is found dead in the compartment of an excursion train – prize fights were staged in the country to minimise risk of arrest. DI Robert Colbeck and his trusty sidekick Sergeant Lemming are called in to investigate – he has public profile as ‘the railway detective’ and the train company pressures the Metropolitan Police.
  
  Marston shows a deft and light touch sense of class politics in these stories – the corporate pressure for a particular police officer investigator, the pride that Caleb Andrews (Colbeck’s engine driver friend) takes in his work and his specialist knowledge and in his daughter’s insight to his work (the daughter who also just happens to be the dandy Colbeck’s romantic interest). He also has a powerful sense of social justice, but like his class awareness this is not heavy handed – resulting in sharp insight to the state of Victorian prisons and gender hierarchies, the nuances of market town life and economic precariousness.
  
  At heart, these are exceptionally good police procedurals that are fully enjoyable (I suspect) without even noticing the class politics of social justice elements. Marston crafts a fine plot, builds suspense and sets up just enough plot options to keep us uncertain of who might be the culprit until close to the end – and then gives us a cracking climax and denouement. On top of that, we get good characters, a sharp sense of the city and its environs, crisp social history and believable voices. This is some of the smartest historical crime fiction I know, and police procedurals are not my preferred form. Take a look, you’re not likely to be disappointed.
• 
  Eadie Burke

  This series is a great escape from the brutal thrillers that I normally read. It is rich in history and portrays the Victorian era very well. I love all the characters and there is, of course, a romantic interest for Madeline Andrews and Robert Colbeck which I find very interesting. This book is the second in the series and is a very enjoyable read for train enthusiasts and mystery buffs alike. I highly recommend this book and I definitely will continue with the series as I find the plots to be complex at times.
• 
  Leigh

  3.75 Stars!! A charming well written crime mystery that kept me entertained and interested to the end. I enjoyed the characters but hoping as the series develop they get a bit more depth. The mystery itself was intriguing and thought provoking! Will be reading the next book!
• 
  Suzie

  I had high hopes for this series, but it was disappointing, the dialogue was stilted, the characters two-dimensional and overall it left me feeling irritated.
• 
  Justin

  Another great mystery novel by Edward Marston. Story gets somewhat convoluted with the amount of characters in the second and third acts, but very entertaining with a satisfying conclusion.
• 
  Hannah

  I really enjoyed The Excursion Train as a nice, relaxing escape to 19th Century England with an intriguing murder mystery that chugged along at a good pace… much like the trains that continue to feature in these stories. Thankfully we don’t get bashed over the head with train trivia this time (unlike in Book 1) and there’s space for other interesting snippets of that period like the profession of public hangman, illegal prize fighting and so forth.
  
  The mystery has just enough twists and turns to keep one engaged - what was initially an isolated case of a man being murdered on a train takes on a far grimmer turn when it’s revealed that he’s a public executioner and may have once been involved in the hanging of an innocent man. I thought the double layered mystery of a past murder case and the present one was well done, although I didn’t find it too hard to guess the truth behind the past case.
  
  I was pleased to see Madeleine back to play a more active role in assisting Colbeck this time as well, although I was surprised that their potential romance hadn’t taken off with as much speed as I’d thought after the previous book. This is going to be slow burn, evidently!
• 
  H. Daley

  Not a bad story but I wasn't that interested in the, doubtless accurate, historical content!
• 
  Corielle

  Sometimes, you go to a library book sale and grab something for $1 that turns out the be awesome, like The Mexican Mafia by Tony Rafael that I found at last year's sale, or the big pile of Isabel Allende books I hauled home. Other times, you spend $1 on a book like The Excursion Train, which despite its semi-decent Goodreads reviews was one of the dullest, most poorly written books I have read all year.
  Set in England in the 1800s, The Excursion Train is about a murder on a (duh) train that's headed to an illegal boxing match. The murder victim was an executioner, so there are quite a few suspects. The murderer used a garrote, because the hangman hangs people! The detective, a wanna-be Sherlock Holmes named Colbeck, investigates the murder, then someone else dies, and blah blah blah. I got kind of drunk to make it through the last 100 pages, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. But who cares, because you won't read it anyway (seriously, don't).
  It was just dull. And the writing was bad. The story probably could have been saved by a better author, but after the third time that someone told the detective something along the lines of "wow, you're just so much smarter and observant than us, gee shucks!" (I'm paraphrasing), I really had to pour another glass of wine. I like Victorian England. I like homages to Sherlock Holmes. But this was a disgrace to the genre, and a waste of my dollar.
• 
  Barbara

  The Excursion Train is the second in Edward Marston's "Railway Detective" novels.
  Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck is called upon to investigate the murder of a man on a crowded excursion train, its passengers bound for a prize fight. Colbeck and his partner, Sgt Victor Leeming soon learn that the victim, who had been a hangman, had been living under an assumed identity, and had been responsible for the brutal hanging of a man who may have been innocent.
  The cast of characters includes Colbeck and Leeming, their straightlaced superintendent, Tallis, the conductor, Andrews and his beautiful daughter, and Colbeck's love interest, Madeleine. Unfortunately, Colbeck - his backstory is that he was a barrister, gave up that profession to be a detective - is thinly drawn and less interesting than his sidekick, his boss or any of the players in the drama, who include the victim's widow, the widow and stepdaughter of the hanged man, a loyal family friend, and an overly eager local constable. Solid writing, and setting, and historical detail are well done, but the pacing is very slow until just about the end, with a lot of who- and why-dun-it crammed into the last 30 pages or so. Still, it was interesting enough for me to check out others in the series.
• 
  Jayaprakash Satyamurthy

  A quick, engaging read, a complex, satisfying mystery populated with vivid, interesting characters and packed with great period detail. A more or less perfect piece of entertainment, a mystery set in the early days of rail travel in England, with settings ranging from the noisome slums of London to a pleasant village that is slowly being overrun by industry. The supporting cast is equally varied and colourful and there's a bit of everything in here: terror, tragedy, pathos and even some humour. I was a bit thrown by the occasional shifts to viewpoints outside of the main focus characters; Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Leeming, and thought they were somewhat out of place given the tightly focussed limited third person viewpoint of the rest of the book, but this a minor quibble of the sort that I rarely engage in.
• 
  Clark Hallman

  Excursion Train by Edward Marston – This is book two in the Railway Detective series by Marston. It is another very entertaining novel about the 19th-Century Scotland Yard inspector, Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming. A man is murdered in a Great Western Railway carriage during a crowded excursion to a boxing match. Colbeck and Leeming quickly become embroiled in a complex case that involves multiple murders, multiple suspects, and an attempted murder of Inspector Colbeck. In addition to the unique railroad environment, this book is populated by interesting characters, and Marston provides an engaging story. I thought this book was even more enjoyable than the first volume in the series and I look forward to reading more of this series.
• 
  Richard Denning

  First one of this series I read and the second book in the series.
  On a train full of sports fans going to a boxing match a man is killed.
  This opens up a story of a miscarriages of justice and no less than thee murders.
  
  Well written and entertaining and good recreation of the period.
  I will certainly check out the other books by this author.
• 
  Joan

  Well written mystery. I liked it and will continue the series.
• 
  Johnny

  One of the best features of The Railway Detective series is that it offers solid variety concerning the set-up on the inevitable crimes to be solved. My first experience (with a later volume in the series) began with a suicide (Railway to the Grave). My second, the eponymous first volume, began with a train robbery and assault. The actual second volume in the series, The Excursion Train, begins with a bare-knuckled prize fight—illegal at the time, and it is followed by the discovery of something else illegal, a murder.
  
  When the victim turns out to be a hangman, Inspector Colbeck quickly suspects that this might be a vengeance killing. There are strange ancillary circumstances, too. It seems a young woman is involved in the murder, but she was not physically capable of performing the crime. When other victims relate to an alleged innocent man who was hanged, the idea of a conspiracy comes to mind. Of course, the intransigent Superintendent Tallis believes that Colbeck’s instinct is off the mark (as usual). So, the supervisor and the detective are head-to-head for much of the story. It is only Colbeck’s reputation among the railroads which keeps him involved in the investigation.
  
  There is a portion of this mystery which reminds me of The Lone Ranger or Wild, Wild West on television. In the two television series just cited, the protagonist often sent his sidekick (respectively, Tonto or Artemis Gordon) into dangerous situations in which, predictably, they were discovered and placed in grave danger. In The Excursion Train, Victor Leeming finds that undercover work can be very dangerous. Fortunately, Mulryne (a member of the supporting cast) is able to pick up where Leeming has to leave off—in spite of Superintendent Tallis’ prejudice against the big Irishman and ex-policeman.
  
  More than the first volume of the series, The Excursion Train rather emphasizes the rather unpleasant social plight of women during the era. Particularly moving in this story was the reaction of widows to the news of spousal deaths. Almost more than the sense of emotional loss was the sense of economic loss and a feeling of unease (or even fear) for the future. Of course, Colbeck’s romantic interest, the lovely Madeline, proves as much of an exception to the rule as Charlotte Pitt does in the investigations found in Anne Perry’s novels.
  
  Railroad fans, Victorian Era fans, and those who like mysteries with just enough twists beyond the expected tropes should enjoy these volumes. The Excursion Train won’t disappoint.
• 
  The Honest Book Reviewer

  The second novel of this series was definitely an improvement on the first novel. For one thing, we are not told who the culprit is half-way through. This time, the mystery is far better plotted and written, and we are not given to know the culprit until the final chapter. We have great suspects to meet, and many red herrings. A really solid novel.
  
  I still really enjoy how Colbreck and Leeming bounce off each other in this novel. They are a fun crime-fighting duo, and even though there is some level of stereotyping in their characters, they are still engaging and interesting.
  
  Another thing I enjoyed is how Madeleine and her father, Caleb, made appearances in this novel. Caleb is definitely a fun character, adds the colour that all cosy-mysteries must have. Madeleine is also interesting, and I wonder if she'll pop up with thoughts on the crimes and clues in future novels.
  
  A quick read and definitely ticks the boxes for cosy-mystery fun. Here's hoping the series remains to this standard, for I do plan to read more.
• 
  Mark Redman

  The Excursion Train by Edward Marston is the second book featuring Inspector Colbeck. Set in 1852, Colbeck is a railway detective. On the shocking discovery of a passenger's body on the Great Western Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scene. Faced with what initially appears to be a motiveless murder, Colbeck is intrigued by the murder weapon - a noose. When it emerges that the victim had worked as a public executioner, Colbeck realizes that this must be intrinsically linked to the killer's choice of weapon. However, the further he delves into the case, the more mysterious it becomes.
  
  Marston always creates his characters to be interesting and well rounded. The plot has both enough twists and turns to keep you interested. The story is both well written and engaging, the mystery both entertaining and keeps you guessing till the very end.
  
  A very satisfying and enjoyable series.
  
• 
  Laura Edwards

  An interesting and enjoyable mystery. I also like the relationship between Robert Colbeck and Madeleine. Much better done than the relationship in a comparable series (George and Genevieve in Conrad Allen's Ocean Liner series) and so much more believable. I also really like Victor Leeming. He is a real plus and a nice contrast to Colbeck.
  
  I did spot one big goof, however. When the priest is killed, it specifically mentions the woman in the railway car as "dark-haired". So, naturally, I believe the accomplice is a brunette. So when Kathleen Brennan is introduced late in the book and her RED hair is specifically mentioned, I figure she is a poor attempt at a red herring. Except she's not. It seems her hair color has magically changed since no mention is ever made of a wig. Why make such a big point of the hair color if the author is only going to ignore (or forget about it) later on? Not only the author, but the editor missed an obvious mistake.
• 
  Robert Hepple

  First published in 2005, 'The Excursion Train' is a mid-19th century murder mystery featuring DI Robert Colbeck, the Railway Detective who gives the series it's name. Back in the days when trains were so exciting that people organised group excursions on them, the plot features such a grouping in which a murder takes place. Things get a little more complex from thereon, but on the whole the tale has a fairly linear development typical of Marston, as well as the fine cast of characters varying from well detailed main stars to simplified cardboard background characters. All of which tends to be necessary in a long series of stories in which only a few characters mature in any way. Great fun.
• 
  Hayley

  Another good, fairly traditional, murder mystery. The crime has much less to do with the railway in this book, which I was surprised at, but it's still a strong theme throughout the book and I think I actually enjoyed that more. You get more of a sense of the historical significance of railway travel, how it functioned on a social level and the interest it drew. The mystery was nicely complex too, with plenty of twists and revelations that stopped me from guessing the full truth until the reveal. For anybody who's interested in the nineteenth century and loves a good mystery, these are a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the next one!
• 
  Charlotte Gouldbourne

  Edward Marston's The Excursion Train was a great romp through Victorian-era police work, with all the Sherlock Holmesian trappings. It was fun, it was interesting, and it kept me turning the pages until the end, which is really all you can ask from a book! I like a good murder mystery and I like a good historical novel, and this had both. It was very lighthearted - I'm not sure I would necessarily look out for any in the rest of the series, but if I came across them they'd be great entertainment.