Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and must contend with old enemy Superintendent Rory McTurk to uncover the criminals behind the disaster.The motive for the crash is unclear, with suspects including the North British Railway, a group of sabbatarians and those with personal vendettas to enact. Colbeck and Leeming face further obstacles when the Railway announces a reward of £400 for information – soon they are pitched against criminals, the public and their own colleagues in their attempts to solve the case.Meanwhile, with the investigation stalling, the newly married Madeleine Colbeck and her father race to reach Inspector Colbeck with important information. Will they be in time to save the royal family before their train journey to Balmoral?Review'Told with great colour and panache ... A wonderful sense of inhabiting the period' Sherlock Magazine 'Historical crime writing of the first order ... Compulsive reading' Good Book Guide About the AuthorEDWARD MARSTON was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over thirty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children’s books or literary criticism, plays or biographies and the settings for his crime novels range from the world of professional golf to the compilation of the Domesday Survey. He is also a former Chairman of the Crime Writers Association.

Autumn, 1916. The first Zeppelin to be shot down by a British plane bursts into flames over London and plummets to the ground. Whilst those brave enough to remain outside during the air raid gaze in awe at the spectacular display, a killer takes advantage of their distraction during the blackout.The following morning a renowned ballroom dancer is found brutally butchered in an alleyway. As Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy build a picture of the victim's promiscuous lifestyle and the ruthless competition of the dancing world, the number of potential suspects multiplies. Wounded young men start returning from the front line and among them is Marmion's own injured son, Paul. The detective inspector is forced to juggle his enigmatic murder investigation with tensions simmering at home; will he and Sergeant Keedy catch the killer before the gruesome nature of the dancer's death gets out and panic spreads?

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 them board onto first class, but they seem to have vanished into thin air. The Railway Detective must unravel the mystifying web of their disappearance before Imogen and Rhoda vanish into oblivion for good.

1817. Dawn breaks on a summer's day in Chalk Farm, London, and the scene is set for a duel between a lady's ardent admirers. Paul Skillen has been teaching Mark Bowerman how to shoot properly, and although he is not sanguine of his chances, stands as his second. Although the duel is broken up, the passions behind the duel seem to spill out into the full light of day when one of the two duellists is found dead, shot between the eyes. Paul and his twin Peter are determined to see justice done and are soon enmeshed in threads of inheritance, treachery and fraud.

The latest in the Home Front Detective series by master of historical fiction, Edward Marston.In June 1916, a young woman is found dead in a cinema. Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy are assigned the task of finding the killer who fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city. Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion's son, Paul, prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme.

Winter, Witchcraft and Devilish DeceitFaced with the austerities of a bitterly cold English winter, the theatre is deserted and Westfield’s Men find themselves out of work. Fortuitously, the company is invited to perform at a country home in Essex; welcome news to the disgruntled players.The company decide it’s the perfect opportunity to trial their new play The Witch of Colchester. However, when the group’s leading actor begins to fall mysteriously ill, the company fear witchcraft might be involved. Then on the performance night, an audience member inexplicably collapses and dies, paving the way for Nicholas Bracewell to uncover the cause of the strange events taking place in Silvermere.From Publishers WeeklyMurder makes a late entrance in Marston's (The Wanton Angel, etc.) 11th Elizabethan adventure, but enough else of interest is going on to keep the reader engaged. The inn yard of the Queen's Head, London, home of Lord Westfield's Men, lies icy, cold and deserted in the wake of a long bitter winter that has left the members of the company unemployed and desperate. When they get the opportunity to perform six plays at the Essex estate of Sir Michael Greenleaf, the leaders of the company are elated. However, there are two conditions: they must accept Davy Stratton, the son of a successful Essex merchant, as an apprentice, and one of the plays that they perform must be entirely new. An interview with young Davy persuades them to accept him, while a new play, The Witch of Rochester, written by a disgruntled lawyer, promises to be a hit. The joy of the company is short-lived as one catastrophe after another threatens to halt their productions. The playwright lawyer becomes belligerent, an avid Puritan attempts to prevent the company from performing in Essex and Davy himself causes more mayhem and havoc than could ever have been anticipated. When a member of the audience drops dead during one of the performances, series hero Nicholas Bracewell determines to seek the truth. Lively characters, meticulous attention to historical detail, humor and wit more than compensate for the plot's slow evolution. (Aug. 20)including The Wildcats of Exeter (Forecasts, Dec. 4, 2000).Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalSeries protagonist Nicholas Bracewell (The Wanton Angel), Elizabethan stage manager, fends off accusations of witchcraft and worse after the troupe performs at a manor house in Essex. A new apprentice taken on there seems to be at the root of the trouble. Lively and entertaining; for fans of Elizabethan historicals. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the final installment of the series, our beloved book keeper, Nicholas Bracewell takes his final bow as the curtain closes on Westfield’s Men; but not before he solves just one more crime.Following a disastrous fire that burns down The Queen’s Head, the players must take their talents elsewhere. Their newly widowed patron, Lord Westfield plans to marry again and sets his sights on a princess of Denmark. With her uncle being a fan of Westfield’s Men, the troupe are invited to join their patron in his travels to go and wed his beautiful bride in Elsinore. Bracewell and his fellows face perils on the sea as they head for Denmark. But as always for Westfield’s Men, trouble seems to follow them wherever they go and when a body is discovered, questions need to be answered.From Publishers WeeklyAt the start of Marston's spirited 16th entry in his Elizabethan Theater series (after 2005's The Malevolent Comedy), book-holder Nicholas Bracewell and the Westfield Men sail for Denmark with their twice-widowed patron, Lord Westfield, who has been enticed into marriage with Sigbrit Olsen, an alleged beauty he has seen only in a miniature painting given him by his shady business agent, Rolfe Harling. After narrow escapes from storms and pirates, Bracewell and company arrive in remote Elsinore, where Harling is murdered in the castle basement and unknown ruffians assault veteran actor Owen Elias. Bracewell's sleuthing skills again prove up to the task as he begins to suspect a ruse after Westfield's comely fiancée avoids seeing her future husband for days preceding their wedding date. A coded message found inside a chess piece adds to the suspense. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library JournalAdult/High School–This period mystery grabs readers from the first sentence and doesn't let go until the last word. Though the book includes vernacular terms, the language and syntax are clear. This allows readers to join the company of players, led by book holder Nicholas Bracewell, and to follow them from the burned-out inn in London where they were actors to the castle in Elsinore where their patron's betrothed waits. Nicholas solves one murder, avoids another, and saves his patron from marriage to a mysterious princess. A coded message in a chess piece adds to the suspense. The classic plot of murder, heroism, love, and deception has a dash of 16th-century Danish court life thrown in. A Dramatis Personae preceding chapter one sets the stage. Students who have read Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar will gain insight into theater and life in Shakespeare's time.–Ellen Bell, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.