Edward Marston Knihy

From the bestselling author of the Railway Detective series.

Inspector Robert Colbeck has his work cut out for him when his nemesis Jeremy Oxley escapes while en route to his execution. A game of cat and mouse ensues that will bring the Railway Detective far from his home in Victorian London across the sea to the new World and New York.

A silver teapot, a train journey, a gruesome murder, and even more crimes will test the deductive talents of the skilled Inspector Colbeck!

A goods train is going through the Sapperton Tunnel when it hits a makeshift pen of sheep inexplicably set up near the exit. The animals are slaughtered by the impact whilst the train hits a pile of rocks and is derailed, seriously injuring the occupants. Inspector Colbeck is called in to investigate.

March, 1918. British newspapers carry the dreadful news that the German Spring Offensive has begun, with thousands of British lives lost. Detective Sargeant Joe Keedy is awaiting release from hospital in London and is anxious to resume the fight against crime on the Home Front. Late one night, a bank is raided by a gang and the villains escape by car with a sizeable haul. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion is put in charge of the case, but without Keedy at his side he faces an uphill battle to solve this perplexing case.

Bracewell s loyalty to a new actor drives a wedge between the players. Meanwhile, Quilter s father is on trial for murder, but denies the charge. Bracewell sets about proving his innocence.

'Edward Marston is a master of his craft' - Daily Mail

A powerful and gentle blacksmith is wrongly accused of the murder of Martin Reynard, reeve of a neighbouring estate. His only chance of justice lies in the hands of two Domesday Commissioners who have little time to find the real killer.

1860, Wimborne, Dorset. Rebecca Tullidge, miserably married, is having an affair with a railway officer, who she finds dead on the railway tracks. Mayoral hopeful, Mr Feltham calls for the Railway Detective to solve the hideous crime. With a pregnant wife at home, Colbeck must work at speed if he is to return in time for the birth.

Lord Westfield's Men, the most successful troupe in London and a prime target for jealousy and resentment, are plagued by a series of practical jokes. But when one of their actors is murdered, the humour turns distinctly sour. Appalling events continue: Lawrence Firethorn, actor-manager, is stalked by a mysterious lady; the sole copy of 'The Malevolent Comedy'- the company's new play - is stolen, their leading apprentice is abducted and there is an attempt on the life of Lord Westfield, their patron. It's soon clear that someone more vicious than a practical jokester is trying to destroy the troupe and that Nicholas Bracewell, the resourceful book holder, has an almighty struggle to save his beloved company from certain demise.

When there is a land dispute over Archenfield in Hertfordshire, Delchard and Bret are sent to settle it. But when the principle witness is murdered, things become less straightforward .

The village of Maldon is controlled by the Fitzcorbucion family, led by wealthy bully Hamo Fitzcorbucion, the lord of Blackwater Castle. When Hamo's son is found murdered, he demands justice and will stop at nothing to get it.

December, 1917. Ada Hobbs has cleaned for Dr Tindall for many years, and on this frosty morning she arrives at 9am to begin the day there, while he is at work. But it turns out the house is not empty after all. The blood-covered George Tindall is sprawled across the floor.

Staring on the maiden voyage of the Lusitania, American private detective George Dillman and intelligent young Englishwoman Genevieve Masefield, make a winning duo for these compelling whodunnits aboard the iconic luxury liners of the time.

'Edward Marston is a master of his craft' - Daily Mail

1861, East Anglia. When Mr Swarbrick, the man working to unify East Anglia's railway networks, is shot dead in a first class carriage, Inspector Colbeck is brought in to investigate. But as Swarbrick's reputation begins to crumble, questions arise: is this the act of a bungling burglar, a business rival, a disgruntled son, or a jealous lover?

Nicolas Picard appears to be have been killed by a wildcat, but cuts on his neck are clearly made by a human hand. Three women fight for their right to his land, but can Delchard and Bret detect the murderer?

In June 1916, a young woman named Charlotte Reid is found murdered in a cinema. Harvery Marmion and Joe Keedy are assigned the task of finding the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city. Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion's son Paul prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme.

When plague strikes London, Lord Westfield's Men count themselves fortunate they've been invited to perform as part of the wedding celebrations for Sophia Magdalena, the fair maid of Bohemia. The long journey across Europe is a daunting prospect, but stage manager Nicholas Bracewell is confident they will arrive safely. He is also confident that they will successfully deliver secret documents to Imperial Court alchemist Talbot Roydon as Lord Westfield requested. But en route, murder strikes.

1917. When a dead body is found in the exclusive Lotus Hotel, Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy must dig into the past to solve the crime.

Three men set out from a small Australian seaside town for an ordinary day's fishing--and simply vanish. There are no clues to their fate, until another fisherman hauls in a gruesome catch--the head of one of the men, with a bullet hole in its temple.

As crowds of passengers rush to make the departure of the London to Brighton Express, a man watches from the shadows nearby - Chaos, fatalities and unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not.

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hubbard has another target in his murderous sights.

June, 1917. While another daylight air raid batters London, the body of respected businessman Gilbert Donohoe is fished from the Thames. Inspector Marmion struggles with the murder case alongside his anxieties for his now- missing son, Paul, but the pressure increases when the Metropolitan Police are the target of a series of vicious press attacks.

Murderous portents lie in the astral plane, and deadly reckonings wreak havoc in the human heart in this collection of sixteen original stories by such masterly mystery writers as Lawrence Block, Peter Lovesey, Peter Tremayne, Jon L. Breen, Edward Marston, Bill Crider, Simon Brett, and the internationally acclaimed Anne Perry.

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 realises 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.

When Nicholas Bracewell finds himself in the parlour of his lost love, he is not expecting her to embroil him in a murder. Between tales of cruelty, forgotten maps of London and a butcher determined to rescue his son, it is yet another mystery for Bracewell to untangle. But will his quest endanger Lord Westfield's Men?

After a calamitous performance and the death of one of their own, Lord Westfield's Men are more than despondent. So when Nicholas Bracewell is offered a new play, anonymously penned, his proposal seems too good to refuse. It is the story of a simple death used to conceal a greater treachery, perhaps even treason.

When a lead actor succumbs to a series of illnesses identical to those afflicting his character in the play, members of Westfield's Men fear there is a witch among them.

1860: Following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Amongst the usual railway hubbub, the animals have been loaded, the clowns - now incognito - are aboard, and Mauro Moscardi himself is comfortable in a first-class compartment with a cigar. 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 to Colbeck to put the pieces together to discover the identity of the nameless woman and unmask who is targeting Moscardi's Magnificent Circus.

December 1860. With Christmas fast approaching, the last thing Inspector Colbeck needs is a complex case. As he wrestles with one crime, he is alarmed to hear of another - the abduction of Superintendent Tallis. Colbeck and Leeming find themselves raceing to solve a brutal murder before rushing to Kent in a bid to save the superintendent's life.

In 1086 England's mighty king, William the Conqueror, sends out surveyors and census takers to record the resources of his land and its people. Wherever the king's men go they bring excitement, and sometimes murder....

London, 1817. A man is shot outside of Covent Garden Theatre. Was Sir Roger Mellanby MP, a spearhead for social reform, really the intended target of the shooting? Twin detectives Paul and Peter Skillen are tasked to find the assassin.

With academic disputes, sporting rivalry and a clandestine romance in play, the Railway Detective will have to disentangle the many threads of Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth of his death.

Staring on the maiden voyage of the Lusitania, American private detective George Dillman and intelligent young Englishwoman Genevieve Masefield, make a winning duo for these compelling whodunnits aboard the iconic luxury liners of the time.

A scurrilous newspaper has built up a large following by publishing details of political and sexual scandals. It is remarkably well-informed and has therefore created a whole host of enemies. When the editor is killed and the printing press smashed to bits, the Invisible Detectives are hired by the man who financed the production of the paper. He wants the killer brought to justice and the scandal sheet revived. Peter and Paul Skillen find themselves in great danger as they unearth an enormous amount of scandal and corruption before the villains are brought to book.

December 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the passengers are alarmed. The first person to alight is Cyril Hubbleday, the man in charge of the excursion to the delightful spa town of Great Malvern. He walks to the front of the locomotive and as he is talking to the driver, fireman and guard, Hubbleday is shot dead by a sniper. Christmas is coming all too soon and Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are under pressure to solve the case quickly. However, with a number of disputes and enemies in the shadows behind the seasonal excursion and the investigation hampered by heavy snow, the hunt for a cold-blooded killer is far from straightforward.

Chalk Farm, London, is the scene for a duel between a lady's two ardent admirers. Paul Skillen stands as Mark Bowerman's second. Although the duel is broken up, one of the duelists is found dead. Paul and his twin Peter are determined to see justice done and are soon enmeshed in threads of inheritance, treachery and fraud.

A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.

Staring on the maiden voyage of the Lusitania, American private detective George Dillman and intelligent young Englishwoman Genevieve Masefield, make a winning duo for these compelling whodunnits aboard the iconic luxury liners of the time.

1851 and the city of London anticipates the grand opening of the Great Expedition. The London to Birmingham mail train is looted and derailed and Detective Colbeck fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.

Despite the resounding victory at the battle of Oudenarde, the Duke of Marlborough finds his position as captain-general threatened by political enemies back in England, and his campaign stalled at the siege of Lille. Captain Daniel Rawson is drafted in with the treacherous task of entering Lille undercover to steal vital plans.

"In the final installment of the series, our beloved book keeper, Nicholas Bracewell takes his final bow as the curtain closes on Westfield's Men; but not before he solves just one more crime. Following a disastrous fire that burns down The Queen's Head, the players must take their talents elsewhere. Their newly widowed patron, Lord Westfield plans to marry again and sets his sights on a princess of Denmark after seeing a miniature painting of her. With her uncle being a fan of Westfield's Men, the troupe are invited to join their patron in his travels to go and wed his beautiful bride in Elsinore. Bracewell and his fellows face perils on the sea as they head for Denmark. But as always for Westfield's Men, trouble seems to follow them wherever they go and when a body is discovered, questions need to be answered."--Publisher description.

Halloween 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night on its way to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents, and this journey is no exception...

Clemency van Emden is startled by the news that her estranged father has died and engages twin detectives Peter and Paul Skillen to help her unravel the mystery of his last days. When his body is discovered to be missing from its casket, the twins embark on a chase of graverobbers, funerary agents and Good Samaritans to unearth the truth.

The first instalment of the Bow Street Rivals series. A riot breaks out in Dartmoor prison, enabling some American inmates to escape. The twin detectives Peter and Paul Skillen catch wind of a projected assassination but the target is unknown.

IT IS 1704 AND EUROPE IS AT WAR With Lord Churchill's rousing words ringing in his ears, the courageous young Captain Daniel Rawson embarks on a dangerous mission to lead his men into battle against the French enemy. He must succeed at all costs- the future of England is at stake. But Rawson is the target of the murderous General Salignac who will stop at nothing to see his adversary dead. As Rawson and his men march across the continent, he must keep one step ahead of Salignac's brigands and live to fight heroically at the Battle of Blenheim. The author of the bestselling Railway detective series triumphs with this stunning first book in the Captain Rawson series.

It's France, 1705. Captain Daniel Rawson is always ready for adventure, so when the Duke of Marlborough proposes a dangerous undercover mission to discover what has happened to one of their spies, a Dutch tapestry-maker, Rawson happily accepts.

When unexpected disaster strikes Lord Westfield's Men during a packed performance, Nicholas Bracewell must save the day. Will a vagabond clown prophesy the end of the troupe, and perhaps the demise of Nick himself?

Nicholas Bracewell, le régisseur de la troupe des « Hommes de Westfield », découvre dans la Tamise le cadavre d'un jeune homme nu, atrocement mutilé et défiguré. Dans le même temps, il est amené à protéger un apprenti chapelier, que traque un personnage énigmatique à l'oeil couvert d'un bandeau noir. Peu à peu, Nicholas pressent que ces événements tragiques ne sont pas sans relation... Alors que la troupe est menacée d'expulsion de La Tête de la Reine, il devra déjouer au péril de sa vie une implacable machination politique et financière, dont le coeur et l'enjeu ne sont autres crue la mairie de Londres, au temps de la reine Elisabeth Ire. Ah ! Shakespeare, quand tu nous tiens !

"Schauspieler, die panische Angst vor ihrer Rolle haben, ein Teufel auf der Bühne, der verteufelt echt aussieht, ein vor Entsetzen gelähmtes Publikum: Bei der Theatergruppe Lord Westfield's Men ist der Teufel los, und Nicholas Bracewell, der Kopf der Truppe, hat alle Hände voll zu tun, um die Gemüter zu beruhigen. Er glaubt nicht an übernatürliche Vorgänge, sondern sucht den Drahtzieher des Schreckens. Doch als er einen Schauspieler tot in einer Falltür entdeckt, spitzen sich die Ereignisse dramatisch zu..." Ein Krimi aus der Zeit Elisabeths und Mary Stuarts, William Shakespeares und Sir Francis Drakes.

Als ein Feuer ihr Londoner Theater zerstört, müssen Lord Westfields Spieler bescheidenere Orte auf dem Land aufsuchen. Doch der Unternehmensleiter Nicholas Bracewell wird von einer schockierenden Tragödie abgelenkt: Ein geheimnisvoller Bote aus seiner Heimat Devon wird vergiftet ermordet. Obwohl der Bote zum Schweigen gebracht wird, versteht Nicholas, was er tun muss: Er muss in seine Heimat zurückkehren und einige unerledigte Dinge aus der Vergangenheit klären. Die restlichen Mitglieder von Westfields Men, mittellos und niedergeschlagen, reiten mit ihm auf einer Albtraum-Tour, die vielleicht ihr Abschied wird, verfolgt von Pest, Armut, Schurken und Dieben. Und unter den finsteren Schatten, die lautlos mit ihnen nach Devon gleiten, ist einer, der Nicholas niemals ankommen lassen will...

Dieser Kriminalroman spielt in der Zeit von Elisabeths und Mary Stuarts. In einer Schauspieltruppe hassen sich zwei Schauspieler bis aufs Blut. Tragische Kämpfe auf der Bühne werden bald in die Realität umgesetzt. Plötzlich wird einer der Darsteller ermordet aufgefunden. Zunächst scheint es klar, wer der Täter ist. Doch der Chef der Truppe gibt sich mit diesem schnellen Ergebnis nicht zufrieden. Er ermittelt auf eigene Faust, und kommt schon bald auf überraschende Tatsachen.

In London wütet die Pest. Lawrence Firethorn beschließt, sich mit seiner Theatertruppe auf Tournee zu begeben, um dem gefährlichen Hexenkessel und nicht zuletzt seiner tyrannischen Ehefrau zu entkommen. Doch auf dem Weg nach York ist ihnen das Unglück dicht auf den Fersen. Oder besser: eilt ihnen voraus. Denn wo sie auch hinkommen, immer war schon eine andere Theatergruppe vor ihnen da und hat ihr Stück gespielt. Als dann auch noch all ihre Kostüme gestohlen werden und sich herausstellt, daß zumindest einer der Schauspieler nicht eines natürlichen Todes gestorben ist, wird nicht nur Nicholas Bracewell, dem Kopf der Truppe klar: Es gibt einen Verräter unter ihnen...

Kriminalroman aus dem Londonder Schauspielermilieu zur Zeit Elisabeths I.

Einundzwanzigmal Suspense mit Gütesiegel. Miriam Grace Monfredo hat die Crème de la Crème der historischen Kriminalliteratur unserer Zeit in einer einmaligen Anthologie von Erstveröffentlichungen versammelt: von Steven Saylors alten Rom bis zu Anne Perrys viktorianischen England ist alles vertreten, was Rang und Namen hat. Ein Muß für alle Krimi-Fans, alle Liebhaber historischer Erzählungen und alle, die eine Schnüffelnase für Qualität haben.