Elizabeth Baumhover wants to read Abundance

"4 Stars. A great collection. I like short stories partly because I can get a flavour of different authors in the mystery field without expending a large amount of valuable time. Don't you hate it when you end a novel with, "Lousy; I'll never get back those 8 hours of reading time." Some people don't like them, but short stories remind me of half hour or one hour TV shows at the end of which you decide if you'll ever watch more of the series. Or in this case, read a full novel. 'Murder on the Railways' is a collection of over 30 stories; no author appears twice. Many are big names in the field. Editor Peter Haining's first edition came out in 1996 and all the stories originate in the 100 years prior to that. If you like mysteries, and find those on railways and in subways interesting, this is for you! Consider some of them as locked-room mysteries. When the train is going 80K, no one can get on or off. Even when stopped, there are only so many entries and exits. I hope you enjoy them! I did.

PS: I review each story by either referring readers to my entry under its title elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ (if it was already on GR), or by adding a short review here. Where I note a 'lead character,' the story is part of a series featuring that amateur or police detective. The numbers, 1 to 4, match the sections in the book although the As and Bs are only for clarity. (Fe2025/Mar2025)

1A. 'Express to Stamboul.' Agatha Christie. Lead character: Mr. Parker Pyne. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

1B. 'Crime on the Footplate. Freeman Wills Crofts. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

1C. 'The Man with No Face.' Dorothy Sayers. Lead character: Lord Peter Wimsey. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

1D. 'Dead Man.' James M. Cain. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

1E. 'Cheese.' Ethel Lina White. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

1F. 'A Curious Suicide.' Patricia Highsmith. See my review elsewhere on GR. 5 Stars.

1G. 'Jeumont: 31 Minutes' Wait.' Georges Simenon. Lead character: Jules Maigret. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

1H. 'Three-Ten to Yuma.' Elmore Leonard. See my review elsewhere on GR. 5 Stars.

2A. 'The Adventure of the First-Class Carriage.' Ronald A. Knox. Lead character: an imitation Sherlock Holmes. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

2B. 'The Murder on the Okehampton Line.' Victor I. Whitechurch. Lead character: Godfrey Page. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

2C. 'The Mystery of the Black Blight.' Francis Lynde. Lead character: Calvin Sprague. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

2D. 'The Knight's Cross Signal Problem.' Ernest Bramah. Lead character: Max Carrados. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

2E. 'Once Upon a Train.' Craig Rice and Stuart Palmer. Lead characters: John J. Malone and Hildegarde Withers. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

2F. 'The Rhine Maiden.' Leslie Charteris. Lead character: Simon Templar aka 'The Saint.' JH Review: It's hard to believe how popular The Saint was at one time. Charteris and others published numerous novels and short stories featuring him from 1928 to 1997. 'The Saint' had a huge TV show in the 60s, with Roger Moore, later of 007 fame, playing the lead. A spy, he is not constrained as much as the police, private detectives or amateur crime sleuths. Here, Templar is on the train up the Rhine valley to Stuttgart in Germany and thinking about Richard Wagner's Rhine maidens from the opera cycle, 'Der Ring des Nibelungen.' He enters a pleasant conversation with an older man and his teenage daughter Gretchen - a lovely Rhine maiden. They are on holiday for which the man saved diligently by working at, and investing in Voyson Plastics in Ohio. Surprisingly, the man saw the factory owner, Bruce Voyson, on the train platform earlier that same day. Then Templar reads an article in the paper about the company going bankrupt. 4 Stars.

2G. 'Murder on the 7:16.' Michael Innes. Lead character: Sir John Appleby. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

2H. 'Murder in the Tunnel.' Brian Hunt. Lead character: Ulysses Pierrot. JH Review: It's a takeoff on Agatha Christie and her Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. With an ample dollop of comedy thrown in. Later in the same year as the UK-France Channel Tunnel opened, which was May 6, 1994, the 'Daily Telegraph' in London ran the initial part of Hunt's short story. It was the first to use the new train as a setting for murder. They asked readers to send in their solutions and later ran the last section with the correct solution. The winning entry received a free return trip on Eurostar to Paris! Now to the story - Sir Erskine Forret, a man with few friends for reasons you will easily understand when you read it, is taking the train to France. He is a Shakespearian actor and is accompanied by a literary agent named Shirley Knott-Mee! Of course the famous French (sic) detective, Monsieur Ulysses Pierrot, is on the train, and of course Sir Erskine becomes the victim. Can you work out the solution before turning the last page where the author concludes the story? I can offer a free, one-way trip to Canadian Tire if it's less than a kilometre away, but unfortunately no free C.T. money, sorry. 4 Stars.

3A. 'A Mystery of the Underground.' John Oxenham. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

3B. 'Death in the Air.' Cornell Woolrich. Lead character: Inspector Stephen Lively. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

3C. 'The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway.' Baroness Emmuska Orczy. Lead character: the Old Man in the Corner. See my review elsewhere on GR. 4 Stars.

3D. 'Thubway Tham's Bomb Scare.' Johnston McCulley. Lead character: Subway Sam. JH Review: We start on the New York subway system just after the first world war. With pickpockets galore, hold onto your valuables. One of the petty criminals is a smaller man with a lisp named Sam, hence Thubway Tham. He was featured in more than 125 stories between 1919 and 1960. This is from 1960. Author McCulley is better known today for his 1920 novel, 'The Mark of Zorro.' Later, we find Sam enjoying breakfast at a small restaurant because he's fallen for a Russian émigré who is head waitress. One day, two men talking in whispers drop in to eat, and listening as best she can is Sam's friend Tilley. Surely another nickname. She discerns that the two are Russian communists planning a bombing nearby! Now Sam has something important to tell his nemesis, NYPD Detective Craddock. PS: I don't think people with disabilities should be made fun of; it's probably best the Thubway Tham series ended 65 years ago. I docked a star. 2 Stars.

3E. 'The Coulman Handicap.' Michael Gilbert. Lead character: Detective Sergeant Patrick Petrella. JH Review: The title gives the impression of a horse race; there's some truth to that but it's not a 1,000 metre dash but rather a 3,000 metre steeplechase with more than 30 obstacles before the finish. The subject of interest? A Mrs. Coulman who lives at 35 Bond Road in London. The chasers? Superintendent Palance of S Division and several of his police details including one led by D.S. Petrella. She is suspected of being the fence in a jewellry robbery, and she's extremely wary of being followed; she's on and off the underground, dashing into pubs, taking cabs at odd moments, etc. To the chagrin of his Super, Petrella recommends the long course and a most complicated way of following Coulman. You'll need to re-read a few sections to catch it all. 4 Stars.

3F. 'A Midnight Train to Nowhere.' Ken Follett. JH review: This 3-page story ran in 'The London Evening News' long before Follett wrote his blockbuster 'Eye of the Needle' in 1978. The scene is similar to something I experienced on the Toronto subway late one evening - an operating station had closed early, possibly for repairs, and my train glided past the reduced platform lights. Eerie. In my case, the doors didn't open. Subways also have ghost stations. Toronto has one; it was built 60 years ago as a transfer point to a planned line that didn't follow the anticipated route when finally built. Now it's used for movie sets! This is about one in London on the Northern Line. It's the midnight run, the last of the day, and the train crews are not paying attention; they accidently stop and open the doors. Janet, a passenger who is exhausted and thinking she's gone too far, jumps up quickly and exits. She's going to the Euston stop and thinks she can transfer to the last train in the other direction if she passed it. But no, this is one of those ghost stations and trains don't, or at least shouldn't, stop. Her problems mount. You can see Follett learning his craft. 3 Stars.

3G. 'Oxford Circus.' Maeve Binchy. JH review: Maeve Binchy was one of the best known authors of the late 20th century. Irish. She's not known for writing murder mysteries and, when you read this 9 page story you'll find the mystery is not whodunit, rather why. Neither railways nor the London Underground are featured; they are just means by which two women of about 40 are able to get together for lunch at a smart little restaurant in Oxford Circus in London. Linda Grey and Joy Martin. They have one person in common, Edward. From the description of him, what you can fathom from their convoluted conversation, he's truly a bastard in each of their eyes - can I use that word on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ? And yes, the subject of murder does come up. I'll leave you there as I am still trying to "fathom .. their convoluted conversation!" Your challenge. 3 Stars.

3H. 'Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds.' Ray Bradbury. JH Review: Strange title, we'll get to that. Ray Bradbury was another, best-known author of the 20th century. American. 'Fahrenheit 451' from 1953 is his most remembered. There's no murder here but one is hinted. Nor do trains feature in the 12-pager but there's a sweaty scene describing New York subways in summer, how they almost boiled like Dante's 'Inferno.' This was before air conditioning. We follow Will Morgan, a distressed middle-aged office worker on one such night; he stumbles off the train and into a shop near Washington Square where he meets a mysterious woman, Melissa Toad. Her door plaque asserts that she is a witch. She asks him to marry her and, in return, offers serenity and success in the face of the turmoil of Manhattan. Question #1, does he take her deal? Oh, the title. It's the label on a sample bottle of elixir on the shelf outside her shop door. Question #2, does he drink it? A strange one. 3 Stars.

4A. 'The Riddle of the 5.28.' Thomas A. Hanshew. Lead character: Hamilton Cleek. See my review elsewhere on GR. 3 Stars.

4B. 'Headhunter.' Jan Carol Sabin. JH Review: I searched GR; I could only find one other reference to this author - it says she had a story in 'Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine' in 1990. This comes from that same magazine in 1994. I wish she was more available; she's good. The story is simple but she builds a fear quotient through the roof. The scene is late at night in one of those commuter glass cubicles alongside suburban railways; maybe you've even sat in one while waiting for the train to or from the city. This one's at a stop on the Long Island Railroad in Nassau County near New York City. A businessman is sitting there reading a shocking story in the paper. It's headline? "Third Headless Body Found." The victims were found along this very line! Also present in the cubicle are three or four others including a homeless woman, a young woman and a young man who seems to be with her. I began to suspect all 4 of them. That's enough; I'm switching to Uber. Oops, that didn't exist back then. I'm stuck here. 5 Stars.

4C. 'Escape to Danger.' Erle Stanley Gardner. JH Review: I knew that Gardner wrote many more novels and stories than just those about Perry Mason, the ones which made him internationally famous. This is an example. It came out in 1960. The danger level is high for a young woman, Jane Marlow, the former secretary and assistant to scientist Frank Hardwick. This is not part of a series with a lead character or two but a young farm owner plays a vital role. Jane's employer had been found at the base of a building after doing a swan dive from the eighth floor. Suicide? Murder? With her help? The police seem to think the latter and have been following her on the continental train. She doesn't know who to trust and jumps train in the middle of nowhere. But the issue of who is reliable continues to haunt her - me too. It's good. 4 Stars.

4D. 'Death Decision.' William F. Nolan. JH Review: I don't know what to make of this. It's from 1981. We find Leonard Bair and his two children, Michael 14 and Lucy 7, on a long trip from Missouri to Los Angeles. For the kids, it's their first experience on a train. Exciting but there's so much more. The story is filtered through the eyes of Michael, and it's far from a loving one for the young teenager. It appears that his parents separated 6 years ago as a result of her drinking and she went to live in California where she has recently died. He is very protective of his sister and resents his father for them losing their mother. In the third decade of the 21st century, one wonders about the reasons behind her drinking. Nolan describes Michael's anger as it rises to a crescendo of emotion and violence. For me? 4 Stars.

4E. 'Broker's Special.' Stanley Ellin. JH Review: Wikipedia notes that Marcel Berlins in 'The Times' said, "Stanley Ellin is the unsurpassed master of the short story in crime fiction." This one appeared in the 1950s - ten pages of murder and horror. There's more than one murder. But carefully planned? It's a stunning story which demonstrates that the accolades Berlins heaped on Ellin were well deserved. Cornelius was a broker on Wall Street in New York, and usually travelled to work and back on a special commuter train called "The Broker's Special." For his kind of people. Of course it cost a little extra but he thought it was worth it. Unfortunately for his wife Claire, he came home early one day to prepare for a mid-week dinner and caught her with another man. Almost immediately, Cornelius began to plot a deadly accident. For whom you ask? 5 Stars.

4F. 'Galloping Foxley.' Roald Dahl. See my review elsewhere on GR.

4G. 'The Second Passenger.' Basil Copper. JH Review: You might have heard of Copper (1924-2013). He has two reasonably well known crime detectives to his name, 'Solar Pons' between 1979 and 2006 as a continuation of August Derleth's earlier work, and 'Mike Faraday' between 1966 and 1988. Plus he wrote crime short stories with a touch of horror and science fiction; this is one of them. Peter Haining, the editor of this collection, uses the word 'retribution' to describe it. Perfect. It's about two lawyers in the same office in London. They started as law clerks and rose to become partners in the firm. Rivals all the way with jealousy and one-upmanship featured big time. The central character is Reginald Braintree but Samuel Briggs plays the nasty almost as well. Unfortunately, Briggs had another problem; his expenses outran his income and he got caught with his hand in the till. How does retribution and the train fit in? The title is interesting as well. As the Province of Ontario says, "Yours to Discover." 3 Stars.

4H. 'The Green Road to Quephanda.' Ruth Rendell. JH Review: It's from the author of the Chief Inspector Wexford series but he's not in this one. Peter Haining calls it "the most curious in the entire collection." And "evocative." First, don't ask - I don't know how to pronounce the last word in the title. In Canada, it might be one of three ways: 'K-fanda' as in 'K-beck (Quebec),' or 'Q-fanda' as in 'pool que,' or 'Kwe-fanda' as in the first letters of 'queen.' It's 17 pages and came out in 1981. The green road refers to the railway bed of a former commuter line that connected Finsbury Park and Highgate in London. The rails were removed years ago and it became a delightful walking trail. The narrator tells us that one of it's local users is Arthur Kestrell, an author of fantasy books in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien with 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.' Unfortunately, Kestrell's Kallinarth series was not successful. Then the narrator discovers, among the flowers and bushes, a hidden entry to a branch line, a gateway to the unknown. Yes, curious. 3 Stars."