Michael Clutterbuck
From the author of the ever-popular Steaming Into books: the second title in a series of short crime fiction novels, set aboard the steam railways.In the darkest corners of London, Jonathan Gregory is hatching a plot to part the wealthy Lord Wetherby from an extensive jewellery collection. A forthcoming train journey on the Irish Mail presents the perfect opportunity. All that is required is a pliable jeweller, and a corruptible official to whom his lordship will entrust the care of his cargo. Gregory knows just who to turn to, thanks in no small part to some advice from Detective Chief Inspector Brown. The Irish Mail to Holyhead just before the Great War presents a different opportunity for a number of its passengers, as it travels from the south of the country to the north: that of escape. Mr Gordon Lowe is hoping to avoid retribution from the father of a young woman he has recently wronged, while Lady Denise Marchant is on the run from a terrible besmirching of her character (thanks to a wardrobe malfunction at a society function), and young lovers James and Harriet are on their way to Gretna Green to get wed before their parents can stop them. Travelling alongside this variety of passengers are Jonathan Gregory’s wife, a private detective, a couple of heavies, and of course the reliable enginemen, all of whom have their own missions to complete.The threads become tangled as worlds collide on board the Irish Mail, and not everyone will be disembarking with a smile on their face.
