Jim Stringer Books In Order

Publication Order of Jim Stringer Books

Jim Stringer by Andrew Martin
Author Andrew Martin pens the “Jim Stringer” series of historical mystery thriller novels. The series began publication when “The Necropolis Railway” was published in the year 2002.

“The Somme Stations” won a CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award in the year 2011. The books have gotten many Crime Writers’ Association short listings.

Jim Stringer stars in the series and is a railwayman who was reassigned to the North Eastern Railway police in Edwardian England. The series is set during the early 1900s.

“The Necropolis Railway” is the first novel in the “Jim Stringer” series, which was released in the year 2002. Young Jim Stringer (who is a railway porter) has a chance encounter that leads him to move from Yorkshire off to Waterloo for a better job. London in 1903 is a world filled with tawdry brothels and garish pubs, and it is boxed in by the blank faced and towering factories.

Jim finds his duties are confined to the oddest corner of South Western’s business: a line of the railway that goes to a huge cemetery. More perplexing, the guys he works with instantly loath him. His predecessor went missing under some suspicious circumstances. Will Jim be able to work out what is truly going on before he is also traveling on the Necropolis Railway with a one-way coffin ticket?

What makes this novel so good is the depiction of the atmospheres during Edwardian times, and Andrew Martin does a beautiful job of taking you there. This, to go along with the interesting plot that is developed in the book. The novel goes into rich detail on what makes a steam engine work and on the history of steam locomotives, Martin is able to include both without making this a tedious read.

“The Blackpool Highflyer” is the second novel in the “Jim Stringer” series, which was released in the year 2005. Jim Stringer gets assigned to drive holiday makers off to the seaside resort in Blackpool during the hot summer in 1905. He believes he has struck it lucky. His dreams of good looking women and beer quickly go away, when the high-speed train he’s on meets up with a giant millstone that is on the line.

During the months that follow during his hunt for the perpetrator, Jim is pulled into a dangerous but beguiling world filled with cowards, eccentrics, and con men. Funfair salesmen to ventriloquists, dandies to ticket clerks. Everybody is a suspect in this captivating adventure.

This is an enjoyable thriller novel that conjures up the times in a very natural way. Some found this to be better than the first one, being well written with quite a few red herrings. The books are atmospheric and heavy on detail, making for an excellent picturesque Edwardian mystery.

“The Lost Luggage Porter” is the third novel in the “Jim Stringer” series, which was released in the year 2007. This is set during the winter of 1906. After Jim’s adventures playing amateur sleuth, he is now officially a railway detective. Jim works from York Station for the prominent North Eastern Railway Company. He is not at all a happy man. While the rains fall non stop on the city’s neglected and ancient streets, the local newspaper runs a story that is highly unusual for York: two brothers were shot and killed.

At the same time, Jim Stringer meets the Lost Luggage Porter, on the station platforms, who is the humblest of the North Eastern Railway company’s employees. He tells a tale to Jim which takes him to the harshest part of town, which is a place the constables walk in pairs at all times. Jim is off and on the hunt for station loungers, pickpockets, and the other small fries of York’s underworld. Then, in a small and one room pub with a badly smoking fire, he comes into a dangerous and disturbed villain’s orbit who plays much higher stakes.

This book has a tone/voice and atmosphere that is entirely original and fabulous. Some liked what Martin was able to do with the moment where Jim has a chance encounter with the people that are murdered. It was great. The entire book is authentic to the period, unpredictable, entertaining, and full of suspense. Readers hope to get their hands on more novels from the series.

“Murder at Deviation Junction” is the fourth novel in the “Jim Stringer” series, which was released in the year 2008. In the frozen Cleveland Hills, a train hits a snow drift. While clearing the line, a body is found, and it starts a dangerous case for Jim Stringer, who struggles as a railway detective. Jim’s current investigation takes him to a nightmarish place in the highlands, off to Fleet Street with a cynical reporter, and the huge blast furnaces of Ironopolis.

Jim’s career with the railway police hangs in the balance on whether or not he is able to solve the case. Before too long the hunter is the hunted, and Jim is not only fighting for his job. But for his life, too.

Andrew Martin has a great ear for the dialogue that was spoken during the time. Stringer and the members of his family are simply wonderful people. Stringer is someone you just have to admire, too; there is nothing that fazes him while he follows the trail where it takes him. On this journey, you get to meet some interesting people and see some great scenery.

“Death on a Branch Line” is the fifth novel in the “Jim Stringer” series, which was released in the year 2008. During the sweltering summer of the year 1911, and on a Friday evening a special train comes into York station. Aboard, is a young aristocrat that was found guilty of killing his dad not too long ago in a sleepy village in Adenwold. Jim Stringer is briefly given custody. He warns of another coming killing that is likely to happen in the village. It will be that of his reclusive intellectual brother.

Jim and Lydia (Jim’s wife) take the train along the almost deserted branch line off to Adenwold. It is here that they will encounter a group of likely suspects, as well as the intended victim. Jim just has a single weekend to stop a killing and piece together a conspiracy of international dimensions.

2 Responses to “Jim Stringer”

1. Derek: 9 months ago

   It’s been 10 years since we heard from Jim Stringer so I fear he has handed his Warrant Card in!
   I continue to enjoy the other’Railway Detective’ but Andrew Martin and Jim Stringer nail it for me.

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2. Roger: 2 years ago

   Is there any possibility of a continuation of the Stringer series. Perhaps set back in Edwardian Britain. To put it bluntly Mr. Martin is a better writer than the chap who writes the railway detective series.

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