Edward Marston

Derby Day at Epsom Downs. A multitude of people crowd to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds. With the nation a-flutter in the run up to this national event, a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train...

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. The Ravens of...

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 Shoreditch's group of conscientious objectors, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be an instrument of slaughter...

November 1907. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield sail from Liverpool on the maiden voyage of the Mauretania. While posing as a passenger, George is in fact an undercover detective hired by the Cunard Line. Dillman and Genevieve endure a nightmare voyage during which severe weather batters the vessel relentlessly and keeps the passengers away from the decks. Dillman is instrumental...

When the Oceanic sets sail from England's Port of Southampton, its ultimate destination is New York. But it must make one very important stop first: at Cherbourg, in France, to pick up internationally renowned financier and art collector J. P. Morgan, fresh from a continental buying spree sure to have turned up numerous priceless objets d'art. Needless to say, George...

Temporarily forsaking the Cunard Line to work as private detectives aboard the Minnesota, a combination freighter and passenger ship owned by the Great Northern Steamship Company, the pair of shipboard sleuths are eagerly anticipating the prospect of a cruise bound for the Far East. Once aboard, the two begin to establish separate social circles in order to keep an eye...

The Dragons of Archenfield follows Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret as they arrive in Archenfield for what should be a straightforward assignment. However, their task takes a grim turn when they are shocked to discover that a principal witness has been murdered, burned alive in his own home. With an enigmatic symbol as the only clue to the killer's identity,...

December 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the passengers are alarmed. The first person to alight is Cyril Hubbleday, the...

An excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the sharp jolt alarms the passengers. The first person to alight is Arthur Heale, the man in charge of the excursion to the delightful...

As a train speeds over the Sankey Viaduct, the dead body of a man is hurled into the canal below. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming take charge of their most complex and difficult case yet. Hampered by the fact that the corpse has nothing on him to indicate his identity, they are baffled until a young woman comes...

Tragedy on the Branch Line by Edward Marston follows Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming as they are summoned by the Master of the college to investigate Pomeroy's untimely demise. With the Boat Race on the horizon, the president of the Cambridge Boat Club believes their Oxford rivals are responsible for the death of their talented cox. Yet it seems Pomeroy...

Egypt, 1908. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield, used to the grand opulence of the Cunard cruise line, are at first disappointed with the Marmora, a small, unimpressive ship owned by the P&O shipping line. Employed by P&O to be the ship's detectives, Dillman and Masefield expect to encounter petty thefts and confidence tricksters and they soon settle into their routine....

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 man's 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,...

1859. St Mary's Church, Spondon. A little girl playing hide-and-seek jumps into a freshly-dug grave to find a dead man already occupying it. It is the body of Cedric Norton, a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming travel to Derbyshire to investigate. Immerse yourself in the gripping mystery of Timetable of Death by Edward Marston....

London, Autumn 1916. When he slips out of a house in the early hours of the morning, Simon Wilder is too preoccupied to realise that he is being stalked. As he walks along the street, lights begin to dim as a warning that there's another Zeppelin attack. Guns begin to pound away as British aeroplanes attack the Zeppelin. Suddenly, it...

February 1918. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy are pulled from their beds to attend a sinister siege involving three burglars where one policeman has already been shot dead. Attempts at talking the men in the house into surrender are met with stony silence, so the police proceed to batter down the door and Keedy bravely leads...

1865. A passenger train stands ready to depart amid the bustle at York station. The flurry of passengers and porters, the swooping pigeons and barking dogs are thrown into a state of turmoil when an explosion rips through the brake van of the train killing guard Jack Follis. In response to a summons from the North Eastern Railway, Inspector Robert...

1857. On the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief, and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve—a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover, including cold-blooded murder. When the Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck learns that Oxley, his...

Chicago, 1931. While the Great Depression has tightened its grip on the world, there are still some men who have the means to make their dreams a reality. One of these men is Hobart St. John, who wants a sixteen-room mansion in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. For young Welsh architect Merlin Richards, the opportunity to work on the...

Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit her Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at Oxford station where the train terminates, to greet them. Only they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the two women are nowhere to be seen. The train is searched and the coachman swears he saw...

Inspired by a handwritten note from his idol, Frank Lloyd Wright, Merlin Richards sets off from the Welsh valleys to the Arizona desert to launch his architectural career. Nowhere in Wright's note does it say anything about murder. Chasing his dream, Richards arrives at the building site of the Arizona Biltmore hotel, where he meets a beautiful young designer named...

George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield have crossed the Atlantic Ocean numerous times in their capacity as ship's detectives. On several of those crossings, they've had the pleasure, and in some cases the trouble, of sailing with some very famous passengers. Dukes. Duchesses. Artists. Actors. Musicians. Kings and queens. But few names have quite the level of fame and fortune as...

Fear on the Phantom Special takes place on Halloween, 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night, heading to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents. Most of those on board have been fortified by alcohol, so the mood is boisterous. Without warning, the lamp goes out in the last compartment of...

December 1917. Ada Hobbes arrives on a frosty morning to clean the house owned by Dr Tindall, a surgeon at the Edmonton Military Hospital. She is shocked to find the blood-covered body of her employer sprawled across the floor. He has been hacked to death. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy arrive to a horrific scene. Someone enjoyed...

A goods train speeds through the Sapperton Tunnel, but disaster strikes before it can reach the other end as it collides with an unusual blockage on the line: seven sheep penned onto the tracks. Specially requested to investigate the carnage in Gloucestershire, Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are confronted with a bizarre case unlike anything they've encountered before. Stephen Rydall,...

London, March 1918. British newspapers carry the dire news that the German Spring Offensive has begun, with thousands of British lives lost. Against this sombre backdrop, further mayhem strikes in the capital when a fire provides the diversion needed for an audacious bank robbery which leaves a police officer dead in its wake. For Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion, the investigation...

Faced with winter's relentless icy grip, the theatre is deserted and Westfield's Men have long been out of work. The company is invited to perform at a manor house in Essex under the condition they stage entirely new material and agree to take on a new apprentice, Davy Stratton. When the group's leading actor begins to fall mysteriously ill, the...

February, 1918. In the small hours of a cold morning, a burglary in Limehouse has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy hasten to the scene where attempts at talking the men into surrendering have been met with stony...

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...

Henry Beaumont keeps a renowned pack of foxhounds, quick, brave and ruthless at the kill. One December hunt, the dogs uncover more than a fox in the woodlands — brushing aside dead leaves, Beaumont finds the crushed body of Martin Reynard, a former member of his own household. Enraged, Henry, though he has no experience in such matters, swears to...

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...

The Abbot, ill-equipped to deal with such a heinous crime, is stunned by the Sheriff's belief that one of the monks is guilty. This is the confusion that greets the two Domesday Commissioners, Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, as they are welcomed into the town. Eager to resolve the mystery, they begin their own investigations but find the killing is...

1917. The Lotus Hotel offers sanctuary for its exclusively female clientele, attracting the cream of London's society. But a dead body found in one of its rooms is hardly good for business, and when it is discovered that the woman was neither a guest nor a member of staff, the Lotus's reputation as a safe haven is cast in doubt....

June, 1917. While German Gotha bombers raid London from above, a man's body is fished from the Thames below. The man had been garrotted and his tongue cut out before he was left to his watery grave, and as the killer has taken care to remove identifying items and even labels, Detective Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy struggle to name...

1866. On a train bound for Portsmouth, an elegant woman shares a first-class compartment with a gentleman in a celebratory mood. Giles Blanchard reveals his lecherous side as the journey gets underway, but he will never reach his home on the Isle of Wight alive. This chance encounter is to prove fortuitous for the woman and her partner-in-crime. They find...

Shrewsbury, 1866. At the Station Hotel, staff struggle in vain to rouse Mr Julian Lockyer, who requested an early wake-up call to catch a train. When they force open the door, they are horrified to discover a bloodied corpse in the bed, a knife still in the dead man's hand. Inspector Robert Colbeck, the Railway Detective, is dispatched to investigate...

When the deathly horrors of the Black Plague decimate the audiences in London's theatres, the acclaimed troupe of players called Lord Westfield's Men take to the high road to seek out fresh audiences. But wherever they go, they are thwarted by misfortune and are baffled by mysteries. Their scripts are stolen, their players abducted. A dead man walks, and a...

1857. Joel Heygate is the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David's railway station. So when the charred remains of a body are discovered in the embers of the town's annual Bonfire Night celebration, everyone is horrified to discover that they belong to Mr Heygate. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Victor Leeming are dispatched to Exeter with all due...

A man's body is found mutilated in Savernake Forest, and the residents of Bedwyn sleep uneasy at night, fearing a monster stalking the town. When Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret arrive, they soon discover that the locals are harbouring dark secrets and that the real killer may be a little closer to home. Immerse yourself in the gripping medieval mystery...

April 1867. Amid the usual bustle at King's Cross, a large wooden box is loaded onto a train bound for Lincoln, its watchful escort insistent it remain in sight. But a daring robbery derails those plans, leaving behind a dead man and a vanished treasure. Detective Inspector Colbeck is called in after a plea from the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral...

September 1907. George Dillman sets sail from Liverpool on the Lusitania's maiden voyage. While posing as a passenger, George is in fact an undercover detective hired by the Cunard Line. In the first days of his voyage, George only has to deal with a few petty crimes. But then an expensive piece of jewellery is reported stolen and a body...

Genevieve Masefield and George Porter Dillman have met all kinds of people while sailing as ship detectives for the Cunard Line. But as they prepare to embark on yet another Atlantic crossing, this time aboard the famous Caronia, they encounter an entirely new circumstance: two men brandishing shotguns herd a man and a woman aboard ship in shackles, right in...

From the members of first class in all their finery, to the card cheats and pickpockets plying their trade, they've experienced more than their share of humanity. And the Salsette boasts a group of travellers whose lives are set to intersect in ways none of them could have foreseen on dry land — including in a murder. Dillman and Masefield...

London, 1851. The London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, injuring the driver and others aboard. With the opening of the Great Exhibition at hand, interest is mounting in the engineering triumphs of the railways, but not everyone feels like celebrating. Planned with military precision, this crime challenges the new Police Force to its limits and leads Detective...

1860, Wimborne, Dorset. Rebecca Tullidge, miserably married to her callous husband, is having an affair with a railway officer, whom she finds dead on the railway tracks. Determined to win votes for the upcoming election of mayor, Mr Feltham calls for Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Lemming to solve the hideous crime, which takes longer than anticipated. With a pregnant wife...

Following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers thrown about and animals escaping into the night. When the body of a woman is discovered in nearby woodland, Inspector Colbeck is desperate to lend assistance, believing...

May 1915. With thousands of Britons fighting in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe and continue the fight against crime, espionage, and military desertion. In London, Scotland Yard is already overstretched when the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks across the city. Among...

Christmas, 1669. In the grip of the coldest winter for years, the River Thames is frozen from bank to bank and London celebrates with a traditional frost fair held on its broad back. Revellers come from far and wide to enjoy the spectacle: an ox is roasted, booths set up, and entertainers employed to amuse the crowds enjoying the holiday...