Edward Marston

1860. Cae la fría y oscura noche en la campiña de Dorset. Ha llegado el momento. Rebecca Tullidge va a escapar de su desgraciado matrimonio y a reunirse con John Bedloe, el policía ferroviario con quien mantiene un apasionado idilio. Pero el encuentro no va como habia planeado. Su amante yace muerto en las vias del tren. Robert Colbeck, de Scotland Yard, no piensa dejar pasar la oportunidad de resolver este caso. No sera sencillo. Al investigar el turbio pasado de la victima, los sospechosos se multiplican.

Un torpedo alcanza el RMS Lusitania frente a la costa de Irlanda y causa la muerte de miles de pasajeros británicos. Hace ya casi un año del inicio de la Gran Guerra y la reacción es inmediata y brutal: el sentimiento antigermanico se exacerba y la violencia colectiva toma las calles. Nadie con apellido aleman esta a salvo.En medio de los tumultos en el West End londinense, la sastreria de Jacob Stein es saqueada e incendiada. Todo apunta a la muchedumbre descontrolada, pero cuando el inspector de Scotland Yard Harvey Marmion y el sargento Joe Keedy ven el cuchillo clavado en el pecho del sastre empiezan a sospechar que no se encuentran ante una victima casual.

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfields players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But company manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy: a mysterious messenger from his native Devon is murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and reconcile some unfinished business of the past.The rest of Westfields Men, penniless and dejected, ride forth with him on a nightmare tour that will perhaps become their valedictory, dogged as they are by plague, poverty, rogues, and thieves. And among the sinister shadows that glide silently with them toward Devon is one who means Nicholas never to arrive . . .

Theatre troupe Westfields Men take on a new actor, Francis Quilter, after reaching new heights of success. But with the new member, brings new trouble. Quilters father, Gerard, is on trial for the murder of an enemy, but he denies the charge and Nicholas Bracewell sets about proving his innocence. However, Bracewells loyalty to Francis drives a wedge between the players. Who will clear the Quilter family name? On their quest for the truth, they stumble across an unlikely ally, who may just hold the answers theyre looking for.

1861, East Anglia. Alone in a first-class carriage, the Swarbricks are robbed at gunpoint, but when the universally-admired Swarbrick fights back, the train robber takes more than money and jewellery, killing the man working to unify East Anglias tangle of railway networks. Inspector Colbeck is brought in from London, as the only detective in Britain with enough expertise for the job. But as Swarbricks glowing reputation begins to crumble, the line of investigation isnt clear: Is this the act of a bungling burglar, a business rival, a disgruntled son, or a jealous lover? Whoever it is, they are determined to involve Colbeck in their fight. Is the Railway Detective following the right track or will he need to switch points to bring the murderer to justice?

A master storytellerDaily MailA goods train speeds through the Sapperton Tunnel, but disaster strikes before it can reach the other side as it collides with an unusual blockage on the tracks: seven sheep penned in place. Specially requested to investigate the carnage in Gloucestershire, Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are confronted with a bizarre case unlike anything theyve encountered before.Stephen Rydall, board member of the Great Western Railway that manages the route, is convinced this tragedy is a personal attack on him and fears for the safety of his shepherd, missing since the incident. Rydall has many enemies: a churlish squire, a scheming principal and a local ruffian who always manages to evade the law. But, as Colbeck will soon discover, the man also has a closely guarded secret of his own...

Three powerful Norman lords and a dispossessed Saxon thegn watch their steeds race close to the forest of Woodstock, each lusting for a win. But the first horse past the post has an empty saddle and his rider is lying in a copse with a knife in his back. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, Domesday commissioners on behalf of the King, are guests of the Sheriff of Oxford while they settle a land dispute. But soon their attentions are focused on a stretch of grass outside Woodstock where a murderers secrets are to be found.The solution will not be easy; from the powerful lords with their dynastic ties, to the downtrodden Saxons, living beneath the heavy Norman yoke, Oxfordshire is teeming with malice, hatred and struggles for power. More than one man has reason to wise the rider of the black stallion unseated from his horse. But who would go so far as murder?

It is 1709, and Europe is in the midst of the coldest winter for a century. France is suffering profoundly: with her people starving and her army rattled by mutiny and desertions, King Louis XIV is at The Hague, searching for peace with the English on almost any terms. To assist these negotiations, the Duke of Marlborough sends Captain Daniel Rawson on a dangerous mission to Paris to seek out a package of vital information that could secure an advantageous peace deal for England.Yet when the peace talks collapse, Daniel is again embroiled in a dangerous adventure behind enemy lines And as the French army regains its strength and a bloody encounter looms at Malplaquet, Daniel faces his most murdering battle yet.

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.However, the investigation is mired in confusion, the identities of killer and victim become increasingly ambiguous. An inmate at an internment camp who might be a spy sending intelligence to the Germans complicates matters further, and the multiplying manhunts, as well as Marmions concern for his injured and withdrawn son Paul, leave the detective desperate and perhaps with too many threads to untangle.

January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as conchies and shirkers, subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of Shoreditchs group of conscientious objectors, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be an instrument of slaughter in a khaki uniform.When Cyril is brutally bludgeoned to death, Scotland Yard detectives Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case. As the pair build up a portrait of Cyril, they unearth an intriguing private life behind the mans saintly facade. It soon becomes clear there are plenty of suspicious characters with motives for the killing.Meanwhile, public sympathy is lukewarm. Some people even claim that a conchie deserves to die if he wont fight for King and Country. And in the wake of the murder, three close friends of Ablatt fear that they may also be under threat. Marmion andKeedy will have to work fast to find the killer before any more deaths occur . . .

Tragedy strikes close to the Detective Department when an old friend of Superintendent Tallis walks to meet a speeding train head on. The suicide, prompted by the disappearance of the mans wife, has shocked the local community and leaves plenty for Inspector Robert Colbeck, the Railway Detective, to uncover. Whispers and rumours abound but did the dead man, Captain Randall, really take his own life in repentance for some harm he did his wife?

When seventeen-year-old Bertha is found in a holly patch, dead from a snakebite, her premature death shocks and stresses the entire town of Canterbury. Her father succumbs to a suicidal rage, and the news devastates the leper colony at Harbledown, where Bertha had charitably spent much of her time. On the day that Berthas body is discovered, Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret arrive in Canterbury to settle a land dispute between the archbishop and the head of the abbey. Newly married Ralph hopes to tour the famous cathedral and surrounding countryside with his bride, Golde, a beautiful Saxon. But their honeymoon is cut short, and Delchards investigation into the property claim is upended when astonishing clues demonstrate that Bertha was in fact murdered. Ultimately, Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret must look for a force more vicious than a mere snake.

Three thrilling cases for The Railway Detective. With the Great Exhibition in the offing, interest is mounting in the icon of modern technological achievement: the railways. But this triumph of Victorian engineering has a darker side too, as these sinews of empire offer new opportunities for hidden crime and quick escape, vast destruction and dark double-dealings. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck is the Railway Detective. When a train is robbed or a passenger killed, Colbeck and his trusty sergeant Victor Leeming must take to the rails and use their expert knowledge of crime and railways to untangle webs of murder, blackmail and destruction.

For Lord Westfields men, sometimes murder takes centre stage...The reign of Elizabeth I has seen a flowering of English theatre. The esteemed theatrical company called Lord Westfields Men have enjoyed many a success but it falls to Nicholas Bracewell, the companys bookholder and mainstay, to save his beloved actors when they are threatened by fierce rivals, assassins, plague and much more. Includes the first three instalments in the Nicholas Bracewell series: The Queens Head, The Merry Devils and The Trip to Jerusalem.

1854. As the Cardiff-bound train puffs out of Paddington Station, young Hugh Kellow wraps a protective arm around his large valise. He has been entrusted with a priceless silver coffee pot, designed in the shape of a locomotive, by his elderly silversmith employer. But two of Hughs fellow passengers are taking an enormous interest in the young man and his precious cargo.When a dead body is discovered in a room at the Cardiff Railway Hotel, beside an empty valise, the great Railway Detective Robert Colbeck and his trusty sergeant Victor Leeming are called in to investigate; and face a whole host of unexpected problems.

An eagerly awaited collection of brand new, specially commissioned short stories from the master of historical crime fiction Edward Marston, featuring his quick-witted Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck.In this thrilling selection of stories, a young porter is found dead in a coal tub; Colbeck devises a trap to catch a thief; and a burnt train carriage holds a gruesome secret in a small coastal village. As Colbeck and his trusty aide Sergeant Victor Leeming begin to piece together clues and motives for each crime, it becomes clear the pair must stay a step ahead of the culprits to solve the cases. With a new suspect at every turn, can the duo unearth the real villains?Including The End of the Line and The Barber of Ravenglass, jealousy, vengeance and duplicity all collide in this supercharged anthology, proving once again, that Inspector Colbeck is the master of mysteries.

Ralph Delchard, a soldier who fought at the Battle of Hastings, and Gervase Bret, a talented lawyer, have been commissioned by William the Conqueror to look into irregularities brought to light during the compilation of the Domesday Book, the great survey of England. Their investigations take them throughout the kingdom, but the pair often find themselves embroiled in more sinister mysteries in the towns they visit. The Kings work is a dangerous business.The small village of Maldon is controlled by the wealthy and rapacious Fitzcorbucion family. When the eldest son, Guy, is found murdered, his father demands justice and will stop at nothing to get it. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret arrive into a charged atmosphere and are entangled in a case far more dangerous than their original task.

Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, is enraged when his hawk is killed by an arrow in the Forest of Delamere. When two poachers are caught, he orders their execution yet neither of them fired the arrow. As Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret come to Cheshire to settle a series of disputes between Church and State, they are guests of the Earl. But when they explore the castle and discover that the Prince of Gwynedd is being held there as a hostage, a number of questions arise. Who is trying to rescue him? Why is Idwal, the over-zealous Welsh priest, lurking in the city? And whose arrow is responsible for a gruesome human death in the forest?

Araminta Jewell is one of the beauties of her day. Even her marriage to the staid and ugly Sir Martin Culthorpe has not discouraged her hordes of admirers. It is during her first sitting for a portrait painted by the fashionable French artist Jean-Paul Villemot that the architect Christopher Redmayne meets the lovely Lady Culthorpe, although he has heard much about her through his brother Henry, one of her most ardent pursuers. Before the portrait can be finished and revealed, however, Sir Martin is murdered. Joining forces with his good friend, the puritan constable Jonathan Bale, Christopher embarks on a quest to discover the killers real identity. In his latest Restoration mystery, Edward Marston, the master of historical detail, reveals the dark and often debauched depths of seventeenth-century London society.

A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.New York, 1908. While waiting to embark on the Caronia, the Cunard Lines famous ocean liner, private detectives George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield are startled to witness the boarding of a man and woman in shackles. They discover that these prisoners are being brought back to England by Scotland Yard to face trial for murder. Over the course of the crossing, while managing purse-snatchers, burglars and drug traffickers, Dillman and Masefield come to believe that the captured couple may not be the vicious criminals some might think. But pursuing the hunch that they are innocent becomes harder when a killer strikes on board. Dillman and Masefield will need all their wits to navigate the waters ahead. Previously published under the name Conrad Allen, the Ocean Liner series sets sail for a new generation of readers.