Bøker av Edward Marston

Bracewell befriends a young beggar who is trying to eke out a living as a counterfeit crank, pretending to have epileptic fits in order to get money from gullible bystanders. When the beggar is murdered, Nicholas has to pose as a beggar himself in order to get inside the institution and solve the crime. Counterfeiting of all kinds is exposed.

'I hoped that we might be safe but we have not seen the last of them, after all. They want more blood.'During a performance of their new play, A Trick to Catch a Chaste Lady, Westfield's Men are sabotaged, and they find themselves in the throngs of an audience-player melee. In the midst of the rotten-vegetable battlefield, one of the audience members is found stabbed, and their masterful clown, Barnaby Gill, is discovered with a broken leg.With the company clown-less, they must find a replacement before they embark on their tour of Kent. Enter Gideon Mussett, a ruffian, scallywag and all around drunk. Thinking the victim in the theatre was an accident. Nicholas Bracewell and his fellows soon learn that there is more to this death than a drunken brawl. With a murderer still on the loose, it appears further deaths are on the cards, but who will be the second victim?

Westfield's Men are out of work. When their widowed patron chooses a Danish bride and plans a wedding in Elsinore, the troupe is invited to perform, as guests of King Christian IV. But the play they select will prove a disastrous choice. Westfield's Men soon find themselves embroiled in political intrigue and religious dissension.

Lord Westfield's men are in dire straights when the company is offered a new play which could drag them out of their rut. However, during the play's first performance, a cast members is struck down, making it his first and last appearance on stage. Suspicion is rife and trusty book keeper Nicolas Bracewell refuses to let the crime go unpunished.

1916. As thousands of Brits are fighting on the Front Line, a new breed of women emerges to hold the Home Front together. Fiercely independent and fiery-spirited, the munitionettes, or 'canaries', are easily recognisable with their chemically-stained yellow faces. Among the raucous group of women is Florrie Duncan, who plans to celebrate her birthday in style at the Golden Goose pub. But the celebrations are cut short when all but one are killed in a brutal explosion.Scotland Yard suggests it's the work of a German spy but Detective Inspector Harvey Marnion and Sergeant Joe Keedy remain unconvinced, believing something more complex and sinister to be at work. With five times the victims there are five times the motives for murder. As the pair begins to piece together the lives of the women, they unearth a tension simmering between many of the locals and the canaries.The dark days of the war has left everyone on edge and suspicion is rife. From marital dysfunction to a failed bomb plot, it seems everyone in the small town of Hayes has a motive, so Marmion and Keedy must work fast to uncover the murderer. Before more canaries are turned to dust.

Bracewell s loyalty to a new actor drives a wedge between the players. Meanwhile, Quilter s father is on trial for murder, but denies the charge. Bracewell sets about proving his innocence."

When a lead actor succumbs to a series of illnesses identical to those afflicting his character in the play, members of Westfield's Men fear there is a witch among them.

Allison & Busby is proud to reissue titles in this popular early series from Edward Marston. Nicolas Bracewell is the book holder for a leading theatre company in Elizabethan London. He saves his actors time and again as they are threatened by rivals, assassins and political interference...

Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and must contend with old enemy Superintendent Rory McTurk to uncover the criminals behind the disaster. The motive for the crash is unclear, with suspects including the North British Railway, a group of sabbatarians and those with personal vendettas to enact. Colbeck and Leeming face further obstacles when the Railway announces a reward of GBP400 for information - soon they are pitched against criminals, the public and their own colleagues in their attempts to solve the case.Meanwhile, with the investigation stalling, the newly married Madeleine Colbeck and her father race to reach Inspector Colbeck with important information. Will they be in time to save the royal family before their train journey to Balmoral?

After a calamitous performance and the death of one of their own, Lord Westfield's Men are more than despondent. So when Nicholas Bracewell is offered a new play, anonymously penned, his proposal seems too good to refuse. It is the story of a simple death used to conceal a greater treachery, perhaps even treason.

Murder turns the journey of a lifetime into a deadly nightmareThe plague has struck London once again but so has opportunity for theatre company Lord Westfield's Men. Invited to perform at the wedding celebrations of Sophia Magdalena, the fair maid of Bohemia, the company's bookholder Nicholas Bracewell and his acting troupe begin the long journey across Europe. Confident they will arrive safely and deliver Lord Westfield's secret missive to an alchemist in the Imperial Court, Nicholas is unaware what danger travels with them. Treacherous seas become the least of Nicholas' worries when one of their actors is savagely killed. To make matters worse, when they finally arrive in Prague, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II proves to be an eccentric and bewildering host and Nicholas' beloved Anne Hendrik is kidnapped...

Guy Fawkes Night, 1857. Joel Heygate is the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David's railway station - an impressive figure of a man replete with frock coat and top hat, bushy eyebrows and walrus moustache. But when the charred remains of a body are discovered in the embers of the town's annual Bonfire Night celebration, everyone is horrified when it becomes clear that they belong to Mr Heygate.The South Devon Railway contacts Scotland Yard for their assistance, and Superintendant Edward Tallis sends the Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant Victor Leeming to Exeter with all due haste. They quickly unearth three suspects, but are they missing something? It is only when Heygate's diary turns up unexpectedly that the truth becomes clear and a fourth suspect emerges. As Colbeck closes in on the killer, he finds himself in mortal danger - can justice prevail? Or will his beloved Madeleine be robbed of a husband on the very eve of their marriage?

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfield's players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But stage manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy - a mysterious messenger from his native Devon, murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and conclude some unfinished business from his past.The rest of Westfield's Men, penniless and dejected, ride forth with him on a tour that will perhaps become their valedictory, dogged as they are by plague, poverty, rogues and thieves. And among the sinister shadows that glide silently with them towards Devon is one who means Nicholas never to arrive . . .

While rumours are rife of Queen Elizabeth's declining health, celebrated theatre company Lord Westfield's Men suffer their own bitter blows. Stage manager Nicholas Bracewell can keep the company afloat, but as the Queen sinks towards death, he discerns connections between the company's misfortunes and a larger shadow over England...

As book holder and stage manager of Lord Westfield's Men, Nicholas Bracewell is accustomed to solving problems. So when he discovers the corpse of a man, he is determined to unravel its mystery. After several attacks on the company's members, Nicholas suspects a connection - could these apparently accidental events be part of some hidden design?

1857. On the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve - a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover, including cold-blooded murder.When the Railway Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck learns that Oxley, his arch nemesis, has escaped, black memories of their shared past leave him no choice but to do his duty, whatever the cost. With the faithful Victor Leeming at his side, Colbeck must use all of his skills to track his elusive enemy. But could he have finally met his match?

Summer, 1858. Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit Imogen's Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at the terminus to greet them. All the passengers alight at Oxford, but the two women are nowhere to be seen. The train is searched and the coachman swears he saw them join first class, however they seem to have vanished into thin air.When he learns his daughter is missing, Sir Marcus Burnhope contacts Scotland Yard for help. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are assigned to the case and are advised to tread carefully around Sir Marcus - an MP who is used to getting what he wants.With witnesses confirming the impossible - that the women boarded the train - is it a simple case of runaways? Or is there a larger, more sinister conspiracy at work? The Railway Detective must unravel the mystifying web of their disappearance before Imogen and Rhoda vanish into oblivion for good.

May 1915. While thousands of Britons fight in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe. In London, the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks across the city. Among the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop.Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer - a hunt which carries them from the crime-ridden streets of wartime London to the chaos of the front line. But is the murder simply the result of a tragic excess of wartime hysteria, or perhaps a more premeditated crime?

He was egotistical, verbose and hot-headed to a fault. But he did not deserve to die...His name was Will Fowler, an actor in the esteemed theatrical company called Lord Westfield's Men, a vibrant young man flushed from the success of a recent performance at The Queen's Head theatre. So exuberant was he that he persuaded the resourceful manager of the company, Nicholas Bracewell, to quaff a pint or two at a nearby pub.Alas, it was to be Will's last taste of beer. A tavern brawl left him dead - but not before he gasped for Nicholas to find his fast-fleeting, red-bearded murderer and administer a just revenge.Yet finding Will's murderer in London's dark, crowded streets was a seemingly impossible task - not to mention the fact that Lord Westfield's Men were just commanded to appear at the court of Elizabeth I - an honour one dare not refuse . . .

When the deathly horrors of the Black Plague decimate London's audiences, the troupe of players called Lord Westfield's Men take to the high road. But wherever they go, they are thwarted by misfortune and baffled by mysteries. Their scripts are stolen, their players abducted. A dead man walks, and a beautiful woman hears the voice of God.

He had the power to assume a pleasing shape, but would he take to the stage?The audience was merry indeed when a third devilish imp bounded onstage to join the two that had been written into the script. But backstage all was uproar. The third demon seemed too much like the real thing. Even Nicholas Bracewell, the company mainstay, was shaken when, next time the play was given, only one devil appeared. The second, poor fellow, was now only a little red heap under the stage. Dead.Before the curtain rose again, Lord Westfield's Men would suffer the sermons of a Puritan fanatic, the enchantment of passion, the terror of a London madhouse, prophecies of a famous alchemist, and danger as they'd never known it before . . .

Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his neighbours 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.

January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed are despised as 'conchies' and 'shirkers', subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. When a conscientious objector is brutally bludgeoned to death, Scotland Yard detectives Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case.

An exquisitely designed silver coffee-pot in the shape of a locomotive is on its way to Cardiff in the care of the young, talented silversmith, Hugh Kellow. It has been commissioned by wealthy ironmaster Clifford Tomkins for his acquisitive wife, who wants it to be the envy of all her friends - and enemies.But the coffee-pot is stolen. When a gruesome murder is committed at the Railway Hotel, Winifred Tomkins is distraught. Caring little for the dead silversmith, all she can think about is her missing treasure. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming of the Detective Department are summoned to Wales from London by telegraph and they are soon confronted by some additional crimes. The situation is complicated by the arrival of a famous theatre company and by revelations of illicit liaisons among members of the local high society. There is no shortage of suspects and Colbeck has to sift through layers of deceit to find the killer - before it is too late.

September 1666. Meeting in the ashes of a devastated London, Christopher Redmayne, an architect with Cavalier instincts, and Jonathan Bale, a Puritan constable, are hardly kindred spirits. Redmayne dedicates himself to rebuilding the city that Bale believes was destroyed by its own inner corruption.

'London is a veritable cesspool... A swamp of corruption and crime'. When Sir Julius Cheever's son, a notorious rake, goes missing, and a blackmailer begins terrorising London's most dissolute fops, it seems plausible that the two events are connected.

As crowds of passengers rush to make the departure of the London to Brighton Express, a man watches from the shadows nearby - Chaos, fatalities and unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not.

Commissioned to design and build a house for Francis Polegate, a merchant, Christopher Redmayne is pleased when the project is completed without a hitch. To celebrate the success of the venture, Polegate throws a party and invites Christopher as the guest of honour. But the party comes to an abrupt end when one of the guests is murdered.

A perplexing new case for the Railway DetectiveOn the shocking discovery of a passenger's body on the Great Western Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scene. Faced with what initially appears to be a motiveless murder, Colbeck is intrigued by the murder weapon - a noose. When it emerges that the victim had worked as a public executioner, Colbeck realises that this must be intrinsically linked to the killer's choice of weapon. However, the further he delves into the case, the more mysterious it becomes. And when a second man is strangled by a noose on a train, Colbeck knows he must act quickly; can he catch the murderer before more lives are lost? Set in Victorian England and rich in historical detail, The Excursion Train will hold you captivated from the beginning to the end of its journey.