Customer Reviews

The Necropolis Railway - A Novel of Murder, Mystery and Steam (Jim Stringer)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a book that I found impossible to put down. Set amongst the smokey engine sheds around Nine Elms, Waterloo and the eponymous necropolis railway at Brookwood at the turn of the last century, this story centres around the experiences of Jim Stringer who embarks upon his chosen career on the railways only to find that his predecessors have met a premature and sticky end. This fact is not made any more pleasant by the fact that his colleagues seem intent upon making him the next victim.
Cleverly, the author has chosen to write this atmospheric novel in the style of the "penny dreadful" novels of the time - pulp fiction that was snapped up by the public who, having had their appetite for gore increased by the sensationalist reporting of such cases as Jack the Ripper, sought out these thrillers for their amusement. Indeed, it was by selling such books at it's shops in the railway stations that W.H.Smith became established. These books were the 19th century equivalent to today's "airport literature."
If you can pick up your clues and have some knowledge of the social history of the time, you may solve the mystery before the end. However, just when you think the book has reached it's climax, events take a spectacular turn that prepare the reader for the sequel.
This book is great entertainment. Read it before it is inevitably made into a film.

Jim Stringer is desperate to be a 'railway man'. He reads railway magazines, spurns his fathers butcher shop for the glamorous life on the railways and wants, more than anything, to be driving the engines he worships. When he is working as a porter, a mysterious man offers him work in London which could lead to his goal of becoming an engine driver, and he heads off full of excitement. However, turn of the century London turns out to be dark, dangerous and threatening. It is obvious from the start that Jim is resented and disliked. The railway, linked to the mysterious Necropolis Railway, has had some recent mysterious deaths - and Jim soon witnesses another attack. He fears he will also find himself dead and is given the cold shoulder at every turn, making him miserable and lonely, but unwilling to admit defeat of all his dreams. The only positive point seems to be his pretty landlady, but when she informs him he is 'boring' you almost want to cheer her - as it has to be said that the beginning of this book is pretty slow and Jim doesn't seem to be heroic stuff. However, the novel does improve in the second half and the storyline becomes more exciting. I would say that this first book in the series sets the scene and the characters, but it is obviously intended to encourage further reading and I would certainly be interested to see where the author is leading in the second book. This is a very atmospheric read and, although I dislike television/film adaptations of books almost always, I did feel that this could be very good on screen. I found that Jim Stringer was, in the end, a very likeable and brave man and will certainly be downloading the next in the series.

I bought this book on impulse - it looked unusual and promised a read drenched in atmosphere. Initially I was a little disappointed, but I kept reading and finished it in a couple of days. It was only over the next week or so that I realised how deep impression that many of the characters, images and incidents in the book had made on me. I re-read it with relish!
This is not a work of literary genius - it wouldn't pretend to be. Rather, it is, as the blurb promises, 'a superior potboiler', and in that category I would unhesitatingly give it 5 stars. Well drawn characters, a fantastically brooding atmosphere, a great read!

I'm sort of on the fence on this one. I loved the idea of the story and the setting. I'm doing my family history and a bunch of my ancestors lived just around the corner from the Necropolis Station in the 1890s/1900s so I was after a little about the atmosphere of the area and the time. That side of it was fine. I felt that the area and the characters were well drawn.

I also felt that there were some magical moments in this story - some great descriptive images. The author does have a lovely turn of phrase ... I'm only sorry that I didn't mark the relevant passages.

However, as a non-railway type of person, I found the railway talk a little wearying at times. There were all sorts of things I did not really understand and although I can understand the author not wanting to have to explain things in minute detail for numpties like me (as his fan base is probably made up of a large number of railway buffs) it was, at times, hard work.

But for the descriptions and the lovely flashes of imagery I am happy to go for 3.5 stars!

I've never raed any previous books from this author but a dectective story on a railway theme in an Edwardian timeframe sounded interesting, and a bit of a change from DI Frost and the like. However, I struggled from the begining, the story seemed over-complicated and somehow lacked a sense of direction. Ah well, back to Jack Frost!!

As a historical novel, I can't fault Andrew Martin for his skilled recreation of a by-gone age. He easily transports you back to the turn of the last century, helping you experience the hussle and bustle, the casual deprivation, the customs and the language of the age. He has clearly put a lot of research into how trains were run during this time and with his character of Arthur Hunt he hints at the growing social disaffection and the rise of the socialists.

In particular, I have to commend his use of slang in the dialogue - although some of it looks out of place given the way we speak today, it does have an authenticity to it that helps you believe in the story. It's ironic though that this great strength should also be one of the weaknesses in the book because in using authentic language and terminology I sometimes felt a little loss as to what was going on. This was particularly the case in the sections describing the operation of the trains and the structure of the railyard. A glossary would have really helped me out in this regard so I had something to flip to if I felt myself getting confused.

The other issue I had is that whilst the book is billed as an exciting mystery, the execution is a little ... understated. In particular, although Martin strives hard to show Stringer as being in fear for his life, I didn't believe that he ever was, even towards the end. In fact, there seemed to be no urgency to his predicament - Stringer drifts from episode to episode and in the one scene that should be genuinely chilling, you know that he's going to get out okay without too much difficulty.

As a character, Stringer is well handled. He's naive, enthusiastic about the railway and I could buy into his not being alert to the dangers of being too honest. However, I found the romance element with his landlady to be a little frustrating - again, it's down to the way he drifts into it, but I just couldn't believe it. Nor could I believe the interlude with the whore house - even allowing for the fact that Stringer has been drinking, it seems somewhat out of character for him.

Rowland Smith is being set up as a recurring villain but he's someone I'm not sure really works. There's no sense of his being a criminal mastermind because there's simply not enough of him on the page to get hold of. I also thought that his motivation was somewhat convoluted, strained to fit the plot rather than fitting it naturally.

I bought this book with great excitement feeling at last there would be a book linking the history and atmosphere of the steam age, to the excitement of a murder mystery. I am hesitant to go as far as to say I was disappointed, rather totally confused. As another reviewer has mentioned, there is an issue around the style of writing in the first party. Depending on your personal preferences, you will either adore this book and rate it as a five-star or hate it and rate it as a 1 - hence my mid-range marking. I am confused as to whether to be highly impressed by Mr Martin's ability to write as a semi-literate working class railway worker, or highly disappointed that he is unable to write in the first party in period, and still apply the skills of an Author. To explain: this book reads like the diary of a period railway worker - therefore, the language and dialogue is very difficult to read. It's flow runs as "I said ... so he said ... then I said .. and she said". Whilst this would be the manner in which such a railway worker would write his diary, I'm not convinced it is the way a talented Author would write a book - in a nutshell, I guess it is the Publishers constant cry of whilst we may all think there is an Author in us there is far more to writing than simply penning our thoughts to paper. I had to restart the book several times, and found I could only proceed when the 'voice' in my head developed a Yorkshire twang and I 'became' a Yorkshire Railwayman: hence why I say you will either love this or hate it.

Even 'in character' I struggled: as an amateur diarist, people include all types of dialogue that is poorly written, labours points, and would require swathes of editing to make that diary interesting for someone else to read. I'm not implying Mr Martin's writing talents are poor, merely that in applying his writing in character, unfortunately (or fortunately to those who enjoy period reading), we get the full diary. Without giving away any plot, here is an example:

'"Who are you mate?" he said, a funny little bloke who was suddenly in my way. "I'm new. I'm to come on as a cleaner" "I might be able to help in that" "Oh yes?" "It depends who you are, though" This funny little fellow, who had, I believed, the accent of a true cockney, was very keen to have my name, so I thought I would give him it, and then I would be able to get on: "Jim Stringer" I said'. [the next section continues:] "I'm looking for the foreman" I said to him "Now what foreman is that, mate?" "The foreman of the shed, I think" He gave me a long funny look as if I'd said something a bit fishy "You want to book on?" "That's it" "I'll show you to the timekeeper" he said'

My brain is constantly tripped up throughout the entire book by the language: I want to amend the full paragraph to read "Who are you mate?" said a funny little bloke who was suddenly in my way. "My name's Jim Stringer" I replied, "I'm to come on as a Cleaner, and I'm looking to book on". He gave me a funny look, as if I'd said something a bit fishy. Then, in a broad cockney accent, he said "I'll show you to the timekeeper"

If you enjoy reading a diary, in full period-style language, you will love this book. But I was stunned to read Mr Martin's quoted Times review comparing his style to Dickens. In my view, if Dicken's style was similar to Mr Martin's, David Copperfield would have been written as a work in the first party as The Diary of Uriah Heap.

Martin cleverly weaves together a tale of a railway fanaticism with that of suspense, mystery and intrigue. The character of Jim Stringer is highly developed and using his keen love of railways, and desire to progress in his career on the railways we see the him entwined in sticky intense situations.

Heard the author on a radio 3 programme talking about his books and thought the concept of a detective on the historical Necropolis railway sounded interesting. It is obviously well researched but the use of the 1st person to narrate the story pre-supposes knowledge about Victorian railways which most people don't have. Attempts to right this with in-text explanations sound a bit 'clunky'. Still a good yarn nevertheless.

London steam railway murder mystery with nice twist. Mild love interest.
Fascinating insight into the Necropolis railway featured in Dan Snows rail history TV series.