Customer Reviews

The Blackpool Highflyer: A Jim Stringer Mystery (Jim Stringer Mysteries)

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A literary and atmospheric mystery set in 1905 England, this novel fleshes out the character of Jim Stringer and puts him on a quest to discover the identity of the saboteur of the Blackpool train. The mystery itself is not the most interesting part of the book; it is the rich descriptions, the amazing characters, and the humanity of Jim that make this a great read.

I'll never understand some of the Briticisms, but they help provide the splendid sense of immersion in 1905 that Martin offers. Those were days when boys were "engine mad," especially about the fast Highflyer passenger locomotives on which Jim Stringer is a fireman. Some of that excitement comes through, but mostly the story features ambiance. The mystery is thin--but not the one you expected after the first few chapters. There's little suspense, no thrills aside from railway speed. The story has a golden slowness like treacle.

A leisurely tour through the texture of performing, weaving, and railway people of the time, noting odd happenings along the way that take hundreds of pages to add up to something potentially sinister. Jim is an inquisitive sort of bloke, which involves him in amateur sleuthing as the story moves along, little incidents happen, and each chapter may add a new clue or a way of looking at previous events. Do you have the patience for this style of slow plot development? Martin's garrulity cleverly misdirects your attention; even the obvious crime and the suspects are not what they seem.

There's more about English lower class life in the Edwardian age than there is of deliberate sleuthing, if that's your cuppa. Jim's mind has a peculiar talent that helps him see the criminal in ordinary happenings, like train derailments that fit a pattern he is first to notice--however incredulous I remained that he is on to anything at all. Jim's wife takes in a lodger, an eccentric railway ticket seller, and we see much about the domestic, social, work, and holiday lives of several of the people, just passing time...it seems.

I obtained this mystery with great eagerness given that I'm a big fan of stories set in turn-of-the-century England. I was prepared to be immersed in the times and captured by a compelling mystery. Unfortunately I was disappointed. I thought the character development was very thin; characters were unidimensional and cardboard thin. Each character was either obviously good and decent or corrupt and despicable. A couple of attempts at revelations about particular characters and plot twists fell flat and were easily predicted. I would give this book a pass if you are looking for a mystery that respects your intelligence.