Murder at Deviation Junction (Jim Stringer Mystery)
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Product Description
Sunday Times
'A wonderful evocation of Edwardian Britain.'
Review
"'The best railway sleuth there is.' Independent on Sunday"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have enjoyed the preceding books in this series. Well-written, vivid period detail and the tang of steam dancing from the pages. However, as has been noted by other reviewers, the weakness in Stringer's previous outings has been the whodunnit plotting, which has not always worked as well as it might.
Happily, for me, this is the book which addresses that shortcoming. Not so much a whodunnit this time, more of a pursuit-storyline [which really gets going in the second half] recalling Buchan's The 39 Steps. Indeed, there is a certain playfulness here, as Martin teases with the readers' expectations concerning the fate of a certain someone who is, more than once, surely just a footfall away from being Scuddered.
Descriptions are perhaps more economical than before, but still convey a rich sense of class, place and time. Curiosities abound; coarse vocabularies in the dialogue between workmates, odd little bits of period detail and some memorable motifs, like the wind-gauge on that viaduct... The snowbound landscapes are beautifully evoked, as are the blast furnaces of "Ironopolis" and the hard men who worked them. Stringer is an outsider in this environment, and we share his trepidation.
There's also some domestic rumblings riding the bow-wave of social change, as Jim's wife Lydia takes up with the Co-operative Society. Again, we share his unease. Well, this particular demographic did, anyway.
But never far away is the railway, with it's fire-breathing Ivatt 4-4-0s, it's ganger's huts and marshalling yards, it's clanking semaphores and lonely wayside halts. We ride the night train and, within the cocoon of our steam-heated compartment, we are transported back to an age when the railways really mattered.
Don't be put off by the rather naff "Steam Detective" marketing tag. If you appreciate a ripping yarn well-told, and have a taste for the Edwardian period as lived by working men, you will surely love this.
Happily, for me, this is the book which addresses that shortcoming. Not so much a whodunnit this time, more of a pursuit-storyline [which really gets going in the second half] recalling Buchan's The 39 Steps. Indeed, there is a certain playfulness here, as Martin teases with the readers' expectations concerning the fate of a certain someone who is, more than once, surely just a footfall away from being Scuddered.
Descriptions are perhaps more economical than before, but still convey a rich sense of class, place and time. Curiosities abound; coarse vocabularies in the dialogue between workmates, odd little bits of period detail and some memorable motifs, like the wind-gauge on that viaduct... The snowbound landscapes are beautifully evoked, as are the blast furnaces of "Ironopolis" and the hard men who worked them. Stringer is an outsider in this environment, and we share his trepidation.
There's also some domestic rumblings riding the bow-wave of social change, as Jim's wife Lydia takes up with the Co-operative Society. Again, we share his unease. Well, this particular demographic did, anyway.
But never far away is the railway, with it's fire-breathing Ivatt 4-4-0s, it's ganger's huts and marshalling yards, it's clanking semaphores and lonely wayside halts. We ride the night train and, within the cocoon of our steam-heated compartment, we are transported back to an age when the railways really mattered.
Don't be put off by the rather naff "Steam Detective" marketing tag. If you appreciate a ripping yarn well-told, and have a taste for the Edwardian period as lived by working men, you will surely love this.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
December, 1909, and another delightful jouney with young Jim Stringer, 'Steam Detective'. Mr Martin creates a world to match that of Holmes with the rattling cabs of Baker Street replaced by the rattling carriages of the Great Western and beyond.
A body is found and Jim, on the threshold of promotion, believes it is a murder case, not the suicide it seems. Helped (?) by a newshound and impeded by both his previous boss and his new one, it is Jim's determination and doggedness that see him through rather than his deductive powers. His investigations take him on thrilling journeys across the winter landscapes of England and into trouble in the highlands of Scotland, long before Richard Hannay ever bought his ticket for a similar journey.
Despite the tension and thrills and the convoluted (and most unlikely) puzzle of a plot, there is much wit and humour and the descriptions and dialogue are pefectly pitched for the time. I've enjoyed all the Steam detective books and perhaps the plot of this one leans toward some of those more creaky ones that Watson recorded but Jim's relationships with those around him carry the story more than the plot. Anyway, it's rare that such a yarn gives the best line to a horse. First Class.
A body is found and Jim, on the threshold of promotion, believes it is a murder case, not the suicide it seems. Helped (?) by a newshound and impeded by both his previous boss and his new one, it is Jim's determination and doggedness that see him through rather than his deductive powers. His investigations take him on thrilling journeys across the winter landscapes of England and into trouble in the highlands of Scotland, long before Richard Hannay ever bought his ticket for a similar journey.
Despite the tension and thrills and the convoluted (and most unlikely) puzzle of a plot, there is much wit and humour and the descriptions and dialogue are pefectly pitched for the time. I've enjoyed all the Steam detective books and perhaps the plot of this one leans toward some of those more creaky ones that Watson recorded but Jim's relationships with those around him carry the story more than the plot. Anyway, it's rare that such a yarn gives the best line to a horse. First Class.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I liked his first one and was disappointed by the next two. On the verge of giving up I tried this one and found he was back on track -well, almost. He can write well - his descriptions of the ironworks and the snow scenes really made me feel I was there - but the spurious trip to Scotland was a huge waste of space. It seemed that it was there purely to show off his knowledge of railway timetabling...
And I really wish I could like his hero. It's just that, well, he's just not that likeable. But, maybe that'll change next time.
And I really wish I could like his hero. It's just that, well, he's just not that likeable. But, maybe that'll change next time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
East Cleveland is chuffed by this book
Nothing better that a good whoodunit thriller for those seemingly long days and nights that between Christmas Day and New Years Eve, and what better than one that, amazingly, sets... Read more
Published 6 months ago by WALSHY
Wondering about Whitby
Another fine and pacy book from a writer who brings his world to life. Such is the detail that I found myself getting hold of a period street map of Whitby just to follow the route... Read more
Published 10 months ago by The True Informer
Everything but a likeable detective...
I've read all of Martin's books from the first and like so many of the other reviews, I am struggling to actually LIKE Jim Stringer. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Mr. S. A. H. Done
A Disappointment
I chose this book having read a review in a national newspaper that stressed it's railway references. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2010 by Ken
Its okay but....
Its okay but..... you need to at least have an interest in trains to be really drawn in. The book is well written and the story line is good, but I got bored with all the "train"... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2009 by Jan Madden
It's An Entertainment...
Fourth in the Jim Stringer Steam (railway) Detective series. Despite other reviews I don't feel you have to be a railway anorak to enjoy the books. Read more
Published on 21 July 2009 by D. J. Keyworth
The Orient Express meets the 39 Steps
Having said that, Andrew Martin has neither the slight of hand of Christie or the wit and pace of Buchan. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2008 by D. J. Charnock
Railway fiction should be historically plausible
One of the characters in this novel is a railway journalist who has no true interest in railways. Here the author clearly represents himself. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2007 by J. D. Mollon
Whodunnit and why?
The whodunnit is an extremely popular format, but for me it's always spoiled by the clichéd denouement in which the detective (of whatever era) gathers all the suspects... Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2007 by M. A. Alcroft
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