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The Iron Horse

The Railway Detective, Book 4

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The Iron Horse

By: Edward Marston
Narrated by: Sam Dastor
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About this listen

 Derby Day at Epsom Downs and a multitude of people crowd to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes.

The gamut of Victorian society, though, is also a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds. With the country a-flutter in the run-up to this national occasion, events reach fever pitch when a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder, fraud and race-fixing.

Detective Robert Colbeck and his assistant are assigned to the case and are soon snarled up in a web of skulduggery stretching across the country. Soon, however, they are forced to ask themselves: just what is someone prepared to do in order to win?

©2007 Edward Marston (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Detective Historical Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Fiction

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Critic reviews

"A grand romp very much in the tradition of Holmes and Watson... Packed with characters Dickens would have been proud of. Wonderful, well written." ( Time Out)
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An enjoyable yarn with compelling characters and a nice twist at the end, good fun.

Great Fun!

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I enjoyed this story. My only criticism is the narration of the female characters. They all sounded half witted.

Old fashioned enjoyable crime novel

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Having only recently discovered Edward Marston's work, I was delighted to find a few of his books on Audible. This evocative story is wonderfully portrayed by Sam Dastor. It is like listening to a radio play with many actors. Sam has truly brought all of the varied characters to life. More please.

Thoroughly Enjoyable

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I love the gentle story line and setting. Imaginative and interesting, my only criticism really is that the narrator gives every female voice a rather irritating, simpering character which is inappropriate.

enjoyable,easy listening mystery

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always a nice listen to these pleasant stories. on to the next one .. can't wait

excellent once again

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I have only recently discovered Marston and I'm already hooked on two of his series.



The Iron Horse is a Holmes and Watson style detective story complete with period sterotypes, but still thoroughly enjoyable.

Looking forward to more

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In fairness while I was not impressed by the book, I was really never able to get past the appallingly bad reading. The reader enunciates every word clearly and is well spoken. So every working class Victorian character speaks with a very carefully delivered 'produced' voice. The dialogue as written is totally unrealistic, with characters using language in a way that I seriously doubt they would have understood let alone used. I found that the effect of the whole thing was to put my teeth on edge.

Very very poor

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I did listen to this book to the end, although 'who dun it' was pretty obvious at least three quarters of the way through. it was well read, but the characters were very stereotyped and cut-out cardboard. it did paint a fascinating picture of class distinctions, snobbery and privilege. i was somewhat bemused and amazed by the sympathy expressed for a truly nasty character.

kept me unintentionally amused!

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