Throughout the year, dear reader, I am scouring the bookshelves of shops for #12booksofchristmas. This starts immediately after Christmas and continues month by month until I have decided on my 12 books, which I then share with you. And I love sharing the books with you.

Read my post about Christmas books

At the time of writing, I have found 10 of my 12, but am now starting to panic as my husband has imposed a book buying ban until after Christmas. Eek! I think some negotiation is needed that the United Nations would be proud of to broker a deal for just 2 more books.

I'd spotted the Edward Marston series on the shelves, and spotted this one before the ban was put in place. I was hopeful it would make my hallowed list, but it fell just a little short.

This was my first time reading an Edward Marston book, and I know a lot of people are huge fans of his work. He's written over a 100 books covering periods of history including the Regency, the First World War but it is the Railway Detective that remains his most popular series. Published in 2022, this is the twentieth book in the series and I think I lost a lot of the impact because I had not followed the story through from the beginning.

In 1864, an excursion train travelling to the Malvern Hills is stopped by a blockage on the line. Whilst investigating what is causing the delay, Cyril Hubbleday is shot dead by a sniper. Inpector Robert Colbeck and Victor Leeming are sent to investigate the case. Christmas is approaching and both would like to get home to their families, but the case is not straight-forward.

This was a pleasant enough read, and there were plenty of Victorian Christmas details to keep me very interested including the preparation for the festival, decorating the tree and trying to keep Colbeck's daughter calm as she awaits the return of her Daddy for Christmas.

There is plenty of detail and Marston clearly knows his stuff when it comes to railways. The atmosphere is a little bleak, with the townsfolk in the Malvern Hills being very mistrustful of the tourists coming to their beautiful area. But there is also hostility back at the factory in Birmingham.

Whilst this was a pleasant enough read, I did struggle a little with the language which felt quite modern for the time and it jarred slightly for me. But this is a novel of entertainment and I can understand the author's decision to use more common day phrases and words.

I had a little break halfway through to read the excellent Secrets of Hartwood Hall, before returning and enjoying the satisfying ending. A pleasant foray into a new author, but I am still on the hunt for the elusive 2 books.