Railway to the Grave [Paperback]

Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his neighbors in the small Yorkshire village of South Otterington  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: 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 mans body has been found on the track near Thirsk, the coincidence is too great. Was Tarleton responsible for his wifes 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.Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Tarleton deliberately walks into the path of a speeding train and sets the wheels of an investigation in motion. The famous Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck, must sift through the rumors surrounding the deceased to discover if the suicide was the act of a guilty man. Marston provides a nice whodunit in the classic tradition, with plenty of likely suspects, red herrings, trains, and guessing work.