Book description
'A brilliant murder mystery set in Edwardian London about a railway
line that runs only to a massive cemetery.' Daily Mirror When
railwayman Jim Stringer moves to the garish and tawdry London of 1903,
he finds his duties are confined to a mysterious graveyard line. The
men he works alongside have formed an instant loathing for him - and
his predecessor has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Can
Jim work out what is going on before he too is travelling on a one-way
coffin ticket aboard the Necropolis Railway? 'Guaranteed to make the
flesh creep and the skin crawl, a masterful novel about a mad,
clanking, fog-bound world.' Simon Winchester 'A murderous conspiracy
of a plot graced with style, wit and the sharp, true taste of a time
gone by ... So beautifully nuanced and so effortlessly pleasurable to
read that you almost want to keep it a personal secret.' Independent
on Sunday
Andrew Martin, a former Spectator Young Writer of the Year, grew up
in Yorkshire. After qualifying as a barrister he became a freelance
journalist in which capacity he has tended to write about the north,
class, trains, seaside towns and eccentric individuals rather than the
doings of the famous, although he did once loop the loop in a biplane
with Gary Numan. He has also learned to drive steam locomotives, albeit
under very close supervision. He has written for the Guardian, the Daily
Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday and Granta, among many other
publications, and his weekly column appears in the New Statesman. His
highly acclaimed first novel, Bilton, described by Jon Ronson as
'enormously funny, genuinely moving and even a little scary', was
followed by The Bobby Dazzlers, which Tim Lott hailed as 'truly unusual
- a comic novel that actually makes you laugh'. In praise of his most
recent novel, The Necropolis Railway, the Evening Standard said 'the age
of steam has rarely been better evoked', while the Mirror described the
book as 'a brilliant murder mystery'.
