The Blackpool Highflyer A Jim Stringer Mystery [Paperback]

It is the summer of 1905 and Jim Stringer is copiloting a special train filled with overheated excursionists headed to Blackpool, the seaside resort on the English coast. At the moment when the train picks up speed, a huge rock comes into view farther down the tracks; it lies directly in their path. Full stop of the engine; full steam ahead with the mystery.

As he did in The Necropolis Railway, Stringer doffs his railway hat and dons his detectives derby, assisted once more by the wife and her brilliant detecting skills. Capturing the world of railway stations and locomotives during the Edwardian Age, The Blackpool Highflyer carries readers to a place where dark shadows lurk behind innocence and the solution to the mystery waits at the end of the line.

UK PRAISE FOR THE BLACKPOOL HIGHFLYER

A steamy whodunnit . . . This may well be the best fiction about the railways since Dickens. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

An irresistible excursion into a bygone world. THE SUNDAY TIMES

Chapter One
           The vacuum was created, and we were ready for the road. As we waited at Halifax Joint station for the starter signal, I sat down on the sandbox and carried on reading yesterday’sEvening Courier, which a cleaner had left on the footplate of our engine. ‘There are cheering reports of the weather from the numerous seaside resorts, and indications that the Whitsuntide holidays will be spent under the most pleasant conditions. Yesterday was fine everywhere and in every way . . .’
           That would have been it, or something like, for the glass had been rising steadily since the start of March. ‘Enjoyable sports at Thrum Hall,’ I read. ‘Everybody was in a happy mood at Halifax Cricket Ground this morning . . .’
           I follsn