Needs to build more steam ... - Rated 
As a historical novel, I can't fault Andrew Martin for his skilled recreation of a by-gone age. He easily transports you back to the turn of the last century, helping you experience the hussle and bustle, the casual deprivation, the customs and the language of the age. He has clearly put a lot of research into how trains were run during this time and with his character of Arthur Hunt he hints at the growing social disaffection and the rise of the socialists.
In particular, I have to commend his use of slang in the dialogue - although some of it looks out of place given the way we speak today, it does have an authenticity to it that helps you believe in the story. It's ironic though that this great strength should also be one of the weaknesses in the book because in using authentic language and terminology I sometimes felt a little loss as to what was going on. This was particularly the case in the sections describing the operation of the trains and the structure of the railyard. A glossary would have really helped me out in this regard so I had something to flip to if I felt myself getting confused.
The other issue I had is that whilst the book is billed as an exciting mystery, the execution is a little ... understated. In particular, although Martin strives hard to show Stringer as being in fear for his life, I didn't believe that he ever was, even towards the end. In fact, there seemed to be no urgency to his predicament - Stringer drifts from episode to episode and in the one scene that should be genuinely chilling, you know that he's going to get out okay without too much difficulty.
As a character, Stringer is well handled. He's naive, enthusiastic about the railway and I could buy into his not being alert to the dangers of being too honest. However, I found the romance element with his landlady to be a little frustrating - again, it's down to the way he drifts into it, but I just couldn't believe it. Nor could I believe the interlude with the whore house - even allowing for the fact that Stringer has been drinking, it seems somewhat out of character for him.
Rowland Smith is being set up as a recurring villain but he's someone I'm not sure really works. There's no sense of his being a criminal mastermind because there's simply not enough of him on the page to get hold of. I also thought that his motivation was somewhat convoluted, strained to fit the plot rather than fitting it naturally.
Are you the right sort? - Rated 
Not the greatest of mysteries but very funny and wonderfully atmospheric. You'll learn a lot about trains and pick up some great Edwardian slang on your journey. There's even a little bit of romance for the soft-hearted amongst you....!
Negative reviews are on the wrong track !! - Rated 
This is a book that I found impossible to put down. Set amongst the smokey engine sheds around Nine Elms, Waterloo and the eponymous necropolis railway at Brookwood at the turn of the last century, this story centres around the experiences of Jim Stringer who embarks upon his chosen career on the railways only to find that his predecessors have met a premature and sticky end. This fact is not made any more pleasant by the fact that his colleagues seem intent upon making him the next victim.
Cleverly, the author has chosen to write this atmospheric novel in the style of the "penny dreadful" novels of the time - pulp fiction that was snapped up by the public who, having had their appetite for gore increased by the sensationalist reporting of such cases as Jack the Ripper, sought out these thrillers for their amusement. Indeed, it was by selling such books at it's shops in the railway stations that W.H.Smith became established. These books were the 19th century equivalent to today's "airport literature."
If you can pick up your clues and have some knowledge of the social history of the time, you may solve the mystery before the end. However, just when you think the book has reached it's climax, events take a spectacular turn that prepare the reader for the sequel.
This book is great entertainment. Read it before it is inevitably made into a film.
A Slow Burner - Rated
I bought this book on impulse - it looked unusual and promised a read drenched in atmosphere. Initially I was a little disappointed, but I kept reading and finished it in a couple of days. It was only over the next week or so that I realised how deep impression that many of the characters, images and incidents in the book had made on me. I re-read it with relish!
This is not a work of literary genius - it wouldn't pretend to be. Rather, it is, as the blurb promises, 'a superior potboiler', and in that category I would unhesitatingly give it 5 stars. Well drawn characters, a fantastically brooding atmosphere, a great read!
Found on the "buy two get one free" pile - which says it all - Rated 
There are books which, on reading the opening pages, capture the attention and demand to be read. Sadly this is not one of them. The first person voice is barely comprehensible. Whether this was a deliberate attempt by the author to convey the uneducated character of the protagonist, or merely a sad reflection of his own, is impossible to tell. The plot, when it can be found, is absurd; the characters, lacking depth, are uninteresting to the point of indifference; and the denouement, preposterous in its delivery and outcome. One cannot fault the author's knowledge of early twentieth century locomotives, but this is not sufficient to sustain the story. The narrative, like one of the author's precious engines, appears to have been shunted off into a siding and abandoned. At least the title is appropriate. If ever a book should be transported to a cemetery and buried then this is it.
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