Photo de l'auteur

Andrew Martin (1)

Auteur de The Necropolis Railway

Pour les autres auteurs qui s'appellent Andrew Martin, voyez la page de désambigüisation.

22+ oeuvres 2,095 utilisateurs 105 critiques 2 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

Crédit image: By Samsung1234568nine - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41794676

Séries

Œuvres de Andrew Martin

Oeuvres associées

Granta 89: The Factory (2005) — Contributeur — 176 exemplaires
Granta 79: Celebrity (2002) — Contributeur — 145 exemplaires
Granta 93: God's Own Countries (2006) — Contributeur — 135 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Nom légal
Martin, Andrew John
Date de naissance
1962-07-06
Sexe
male
Nationalité
UK
Lieu de naissance
York, Yorkshire, England, UK
Lieux de résidence
London, England, UK
Études
Oxford University (Merton College)
Professions
novelist
journalist

Membres

Critiques

Actually I couldn't finish this book. Martin's books are popular so the fault's all mine. I like history, I like mystery, but Jim Stringer seems to me a Pooterish character, slightly obsessive in his love of all things railway. I gave 100 pages a go, but when I realised I was putting off picking the book up to read in favour of more interesting activities (washing up, anyone?) I decided it was time to call it a day.
 
Signalé
Margaret09 | 12 autres critiques | Apr 15, 2024 |
This is the second in the series and Jim Stringer has moved from London to Halifax to work as a fire man for the 'Yorkshire and Lancashire Steam Company'. On an excursion to Blackpool the train that Jim is working on is suddenly halted in its tracks by a gritstone placed on the tracks ahead of it and a young woman loses her life. Jim sets out to discover who tried to wreck the train.

Once again I should point out that I live in the North, work on the trains there, often even to Blackpool, have a friend who lives in Sowerby Bridge so know the area quite well and enjoy reading about social history. The author paints a vivid picture of Halifax in 1905, the great weaving mills with their Wakes Weeks holidays to a Blackpool in its heyday, the music halls and pubs of the era and of course, the Edwardian steam railway. I found this all fascinating and compelling. In particular I found the description of the first trip on the steam-engine thrilling: could imagine the landmarks I know flashing by, the heat and sweat of stoking the firebox, the almost dance-like nature of keeping your balance on the footplate whilst the engine was barrelling along at full steam- I almost felt I was there with them.

Unfortunately the whodunit element of this book just didn't work for me. It just wasn't particularly gripping. Jim seems to spend the whole book dreaming up tenuous scenarios to fit in each person. The authorities barely seemed to care – I didn’t either.

Jim is a likeable character, an intelligent, working-class railwayman but I saw little in the way of character development from the first in the series. I have several more of these in my possession so I don't intend to give up on them totally but it may be a while before I get to the next in line.
… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
PilgrimJess | 12 autres critiques | Sep 24, 2023 |
Couldn't help myself - sunday morning on the sofa in the sunshine and I just read on and finished this. I really like spending time with Jim and his confused world, love the intelligence and his strong feelings about other people. Now there are no more Jim Stringer books to read... I'm not sure if the author intends any more although I don't how he can refrain from giving Jim a swansong 30 years later when the Beeching reports are used to cut the railways and kill off the last of steam.
 
Signalé
Ma_Washigeri | 2 autres critiques | Jan 23, 2021 |
I was nearly devastated. At first I could not see another Jim Stringer book to read. However a new one was published last year. I love these books. This one was not quite so grim as the last two, but very topical with Isis pushing close to Baghdad and bringing the disastrous state of affairs back to our news reporting, which it should never have left.
 
Signalé
Ma_Washigeri | 3 autres critiques | Jan 23, 2021 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
22
Aussi par
3
Membres
2,095
Popularité
#12,287
Évaluation
½ 3.4
Critiques
105
ISBN
242
Langues
3
Favoris
2

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