‘Thefts of this kind are highly unusual. I’m sure the clerk never believed he was in any danger.’ ‘Well, he was. You’re after a cunning devil, Inspector – smoke him out.’

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.