Travel to Dublin for a Railway Murder

Submitted: 7th November 2021

Thomas Morris recreates Victorian Dublin murder

A true Victorian crime brought to life in a historical novel? Yes please!

The true crime was a murder at the Broadstone railway terminal in Dublin. George Little, a clerk in a there, was brutally murdered at his desk in his locked office. This novel takes that story, and recreates it so we, as the reader can be at the centre of it all. It is quite the experience!

The Book Trail The Dublin Railway Murder – The Book Trail

Boarding Pass Information : The Dublin Railway Murder

Destination : Dublin

Author guide: Thomas Morris

Genre: Inspired by a real life crime

Food and drink to accompany: Irish stout and a nice pie

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The Book Trail The Dublin Railway Murder

The author has really taken this subject and crafted it well from meticulous research. He expertly crafts the atmosphere and political situation at the time through records and facts from the real life case. It’s quite the mix and very compelling reading.

The Book Trail The Dublin Railway Murder

The setting is nicely evoked as we get a sense not just of the time, but the Irish political situation, the state of the railways and how people living in Dublin were at that time with regards to the police. Many people distrusted the police at the time it seems. The population of Dublin were suspicious of the absent English MP who governed them at the time. There was a financial crisis too and scams going on with officials so when the cashier George Little was murdered, this suggested was much more than an awful murder and crime. Nothing is going to be straight forward here and the intrigue is there from the start.

The Book Trail The Dublin Railway Murder

It’s all so awful that I was keen to remind myself that this actually happened. Imagine in the days before DNA and the techniques the police would use today how much more difficult this would all have been. There are so many hurdles to finding and then apprehending the perpetrator that it was almost unreliable. This was a unique case and the author has given us a brilliantly immersive journey into the past and a very interesting criminal investigation. I love these historical investigations and trials as with the benefit of hindsight you know how it would be viewed today. How they investigated with the constrictions of the past is just so fascinating.

As well as the trial and investigation however, I found this novel like a history book of the people and events of that time. Life in Dublin in 1856 was very different to life now but it was such a rush to go back there!

Highly recommended and please can we have this one TV?