Why a Booktrail?
1930s: A man boards a train but never gets off..alive.
Death in the Tunnel (British Library Crime Classics)
What you need to know before your trail
Sir Wilfred Saxonby is travelling alone in a carriage on the 5pm train from Cannon Street, in a locked compartment. When the train driver sees a red light ahead at a tunnel, he stops the train but by the time the light turns to green and the train emerges out the other end, a man is shot, a single hit to his heart. It looks like a classic if not very sad case of suicide but Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard calls Merrion, a wealthy amateur expert in criminology, to help him solve the mystery.
Travel Guide
Experience the Golden Age of the train – London
A locked room mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. The book was published in 1936 and brings together the essence and the glory days of Golden Age crime as well as the golden age of train travel.
The 5:00 p.m. train from Cannon Street runs fast as far as Stourford (fictional setting but could this be Stortford?)
“ It was a fine evening, dark with no suggestion of fog. Drawn buy a powerful locomotive of the Lord Nelson type, the train kept well up to schedule time. In fact it ran through Blackdown station at 5.20, two minutes earlier than it was timed to do.”
The train slows down in the tunnel for a red light but the mystery builds from there. This is a locked room mystery, a train stuck in the countryside miles from anywhere, a killer on the train. The great age of steam is evoked with the smell of smoke, coal and intrigue
A train journey is one of the most magical and exciting things to read about an imagine you’re right there on that train. Guards run up and down with drinks, the whistle blows and the train chugs along to its next destination. Destination reached, and the doors open to reveal a body.
In the days when a train was old fashioned compartments and enclosed, private spaces, curtains and lamps, this is like taking a ride back into the past in more ways than one.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Death in the Tunnel (British Library Crime Classics)
Author/Guide: Miles Burton Destination: London Departure Time:1930s
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