The Necropolis Railway

Posted on 23 November 2018 by Andrew Martin

Bright and ambitious, young Jim Stringer moves from the English countryside to London deter mined to become a railway man It is 1903, the dawn of the Edwardian age, when steam runs the nation and the railways drive progress Jim can t believe his luck to have gotten his foot in the door at South East Railway, run out of Waterloo Station He finds, however, that his duties involve a graveyard shift, literally a railway line that takes coffins from London morgues to the gigantic new cemeteries being dug in the city s outskirts He also learns that his predecessor had disappeared and that his coworkers seem to have formed an instant loathing for him Forced to live by his wits and to arrive at his own deductions assisted by his landlady, for whom he falls he tries to figure out what is going on before he is issued a one way ticket on the Necropolis Railway. Free Read eBook The Necropolis Railway Author Andrew Martin – kino-fada.fr Review from BadelyngeThe Necropolis Railway introduces the character of Jim Stringer onto the Edwardian mystery stage Stringer starts out as a fairly wet behind the ears young bloke fresh out of Baytown that s Robin Hood s Bay to us tourists He s dead set on making a life and a career for himself on his beloved railways His head is full of the romance of the railways, the rose coloured ideal straight out of the Boy s Own Paper or his revered Railway Magazine His first job as a porter at th Review from BadelyngeThe Necropolis Railway introduces the character of Jim Stringer onto the Edwardian mystery stage Stringer starts out as a fairly wet behind the ears young bloke fresh out of Baytown that s Robin Hood s Bay to us tourists He s dead set on making a life and a career for himself on his beloved railways His head is full of the romance of the railways, the rose colou...This book was okay, and had a lot of what appeals to me in period mysteries the feel of being taken to another world The blurbs on the back include loaded with railway lore and crackles with the idiom and slang of the period And that was the problem it crackled so much I couldn t actually tell what the hell was going on, sometimes When terms aren t defined, you can normally gather them by context, but when the context of the word in question is loaded with stillundefined terms, This book was okay, and had a lot of what appeals to me in period mysteries the feel of being taken to another world The blurbs on the back include loaded with railway lore and crackles with the idiom and slang of the period And that was the p...This is a smart and inventive Edwardian thriller, set on a railway line whose sole purpose is a perfect fit for a thriller the trains transported the dead and the grieving to a large cemetery outside of London This was apparently a real line, the cemetery was Brockwood and the trains departed from Waterloo There is murder, skulduggery, a gang of sinister characters and a young apprentice whose eyes are opened to the world.Unfortunately, unless you happen to have an incredibly deep interest This is a smart and inventive Edwardian thriller, set on a railway line whose sole purpose is a perfect fit for a thriller the trains transported the dead and the grieving to a large cemetery outside of London This was apparently a real line, the cemetery was Brockwood and the trains departed from Waterloo There is murder, skulduggery, a gang of sinister characters and a young apprentice whose eyes are opened to the world.Unfortunately, unless you happen to have an incredibly deep interest in trains, it s a difficult novel to wrap yourself up in The narrator has an obsessive interest in engines and railways, to such an extent that he is actually accused of being boring on the subject I m trying to think of narrators of other books I might have read who are accused of being dull within the text, so far nothing comes to mind And so it s a book which can really be hard going for those of us not so turned on by locomotives.There are undoubtedly good things about t...I enjoyed the historical atmosphere from the golden age of steam, but found the mystery confusing and slow There was way too much train jargon for a lay person to understand the book is obviously written with train enthusiasts in mind and I found the main character naive, pretentious and boring I wasn t sure how he managed to solve the murder mystery there wasn t much logical build up, unless I missed something fundamental I nearly gave up at 40%, but saw it through to the end after a I enjoyed the historical atmosphere from the golden age of steam, but found the mystery confusing and slow There was way too much train jargon for a lay person to understand the book is obviously written with train e...The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin is first book in a series starring railway man Jim Stringer It is billed on its cover as an ingenious and atmospheric thriller Daily Express, London and a masterful novel about a mad, clanking fog bound world Simon Winchester, author of The Professor the Madman , but quite honestly ingenious, thriller and masterful aren t the words that come to mind Atmosphere.now I will admit that it s got plenty of that There are bits where the atmosphe The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin is first book in a series starring railway man Jim Stringer It is billed on its cover as an ingenious and atmospheric thriller Daily Express, London and a masterful novel about a mad, clanking fog bound world Simon Winchester, author of The Professor the Madman , but quite honestly ingenious, thriller and masterful aren t the words that come to mind Atmosphere.now I will admit that it s got plenty of that There are bits where the atmosphere is perfect the reader is plopped down in Edwardian England and it feels right But then there s that dream like, misty edged, through the looking glass atmosphere that makes the reader stop and flip back through several pages, look up, and say to oneself, What the heck just happened there It doesn t help that all sorts of unfamiliar terms mostly railway, but not all are thrown about like everyone knows an encyclopedia s worth of railway jargon.The story ...I almost always have a little light reading on the go, invariably detective stuff This, my introduction to Martin, is fine, the writing wuality high Faber think so too which is why the publish him.I note a lot of negative reviews I sympathise The books are slow and thickly textured, an...If you love Victorian rail history this book will make you a very happy person If like me yourof hmmm let s look at the next exhibit then this is a decent enough crime story with a steam engine obsession.The Necropolis Railway A Novel of Murder, Mystery and SteamThis was a nice easy read We are introduced to young Jim Stringer at the beginning of this book By a bit of good fortune he meets an influential stranger the dapper Mr Rowland Smith who is able to offer Jim an opportunity to fulfil his dream of becoming a steam engine driver With Smith s offer, Jim is able to leave Yorkshire and move to London to take up a position as a steam engine cleaner with the London and South Western Railway The Necropolis Railway A Novel of Murder, Mystery and SteamThis was a nice easy read We are introduced to young Jim Stringer at the beginning of this book By a bit of good fortune he meets an influential stranger the dapper Mr Rowland Smith who is able to offer Jim an opportunity to fulfil his dream of becoming a s...I approached this book with a totally open mind and my only expectations, were a hope that the Author would at the very least create a rich Conan Doyle esqe vision of turn of the twentieth century London After finishing the book, I can honestly say that for the first time in as long as I can remember that I have thoroughly enjoyed an historical novel that actually sacrifices plot for beautiful period enviromental, social and most obviously technical detail The industrialised London that the I approached this book with a totally open m...Well I gave this book a try, but I found it deadly dull Maybe it s because I don t care much about trains and this book did not instill in me a thirst to learnI found the narrator a pompous little hypocrite and I hated the narration Found it difficult to follow, disjointed, and unclear The mystery was hard to get into, and someone who personally lovescharacters , I had the hardest time keeping every...

English
23 November 2018

Andrew Martin