Tragedy on the Branch Line

The Railway Detective, Book 19

By: Edward Marston

Narrated by: Sam Dastor

When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. He hurries to the railway station. But he doesn’t reach his destination alive.

Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called upon to investigate this tragedy on the railway. It soon becomes apparent that Cambridge’s hopes of success in the forthcoming boat race rested on Pomeroy’s shoulders.

With academic disputes, romantic interests and a sporting rivalry with Oxford in play, the railway detective will have his work cut out to disentangle the threads of Pomeroy’s life in order to answer the truth of his death.

©2021 Edward Marston (P)2021 Soundings

Great

Another intriguing murder mystery. A young man is killed mysteriously and the duo are on it! A lot of red herrings

Distractingly inaccurate narration

The overall storyline is fine, though I find the tangential lines concerning Madeline and her father to be increasingly distracting - particularly as they no longer appear to have any relation to the central mystery plot line. (And why Madeline is only now, several years into her marriage, having a crisis of class consciousness, I cannot fathom.) But the basic mystery plot is interesting and moves along nicely, despite the distractions.

Despite the passable plot, the highly questionable narration made this a difficult listen for me. Madeline's accent has changed so dramatically from the previous books that it feels as though a whole new character has been introduced. The same goes for the junior detective, Alan Hinton. While I usually don't mind a narrator adding their own "flair" to a reading, these types of changes affect how the entire character and their role in the story is viewed. I wish the narrator had stayed true to the previous renditions.

Disappointing narration

Why has Sam Dastor changed the voices of two of the main characters? It was jarring to listen to and off putting. Madeline and Alan have slipped down the social scale since we last met them!! What happened?
I have enjoyed the Railway Detective novels up to this one.
Such a pity as in other respects the novel was interesting enough.........