Now here's a murd'rous tale of woe, See a hero misbehave. For it
shows a valiant soldier go, By railway to the grave.
Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his
neighbours in the small Yorkshire village of South Otterington Â- as
much for his heroic feats in the army as for his social position. So
the community is left stunned when Tarleton, deliberately, walks
into the path of a speeding train. He is crushed to death on the
track, but it is not his broken limbs that attract the attention of
the train driver; rather, it is the note pinned to his chest,
fluttering in the breeze: Â Whoever finds me, notify Superintendent
Tallis of the Detective Department at Scotland Yard'.
The famous Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck, finds his
superior officer in great distress when he arrives at the Yard the
following morning. Tallis is clutching a letter from his
now-deceased friend. In it, Tarleton makes it clear that he no
longer wishes to live if he has to do so without his beloved wife,
who has disappeared. When the news arrives that a man's body has
been found on the track near Thirsk, the coincidence is too great.
Was Tarleton responsible for his wife's disappearance, and was his
suicide the act of a guilty man? Tallis cannot believe that to be
the case and sets out for Yorkshire, accompanied by Colbeck and his
trusty Sergeant Victor Leeming, determined to uncover the truth.
Edward 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 and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers'
Association. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home
writing children's books or literary criticism, plays or biographies.
There are currently seven books in the series featuring Inspector
Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming, set in the 1850s.
www. edwardmarston. com
