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The Four-Fifteen Express
The Four-Fifteen Express is a novel written by Amelia B. Edwards. The story revolves around a young woman named Mildred Brace, who is on her way to visit her aunt in the countryside. She boards the Four-Fifteen Express train from London, and during the journey, she meets a group of interesting characters, including a mysterious gentleman named Mr. Lawrence. Mildred is drawn to Mr. Lawrence's enigmatic personality and finds herself falling in love with him.However, their budding romance is threatened by the presence of another passenger on the train, a scheming woman named Mrs. Harville, who also has her sights set on Mr. Lawrence. As the journey progresses, Mildred becomes embroiled in a series of intrigues and mysteries, including a theft and a murder.The Four-Fifteen Express is a thrilling tale of love, betrayal, and suspense, set against the backdrop of Victorian England. Edwards' vivid descriptions of the English countryside and the train journey make the reader feel like they are a part of the story. The novel is a classic of Victorian literature and is a must-read for fans of mystery and romance.John Dwerrihouse had absconded three months ago--and I had seen him only a few hours back! John Dwerrihouse had embezzled seventy-five thousand pounds ofthe company's money, yet told me that he carried that sum upon his person! Were ever facts so strangely incongruous, so difficult to reconcile? How should he have ventured again into the light of day? How dared he show himself along the line? Above all, what had he been doing throughout those mysterious three months of disappearance?This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1866
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Amelia B. Edwards
314 books69 followersAmelia Ann Blandford Edwards (1831-1892) was an English novelist, journalist, lady traveller and Egyptologist, born to an Irish mother and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker. Edwards was educated at home by her mother, showing considerable promise as a writer at a young age. She published her first poem at the age of 7, her first story at age 12. Edwards thereafter proceeded to publish a variety of poetry, stories and articles in a large number of magazines.
Edwards' first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel of bigamy, that solidly established her reputation as a novelist. She spent considerable time and effort on their settings and backgrounds, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the researching and writing of each. This painstaking work paid off, her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), emerged as a run-away success which went to 15 editions.
In the winter of 1873–1874, accompanied by several friends, Edwards toured Egypt, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures, both ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the companions visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel where they remained for six weeks. During this last period, a member of Edwards' party, the English painter Andrew McCallum, discovered a previously-unknown sanctuary which bore her name for some time afterwards. Having once returned to the UK, Edwards proceeded to write a vivid description of her Nile voyage, publishing the resulting book in 1876 under the title of A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Enhanced with her own hand-drawn illustrations, the travelogue became an immediate bestseller.
Edwards' travels in Egypt had made her aware of the increasing threat directed towards the ancient monuments by tourism and modern development. Determined to stem these threats by the force of public awareness and scientific endeavour, Edwards became a tireless public advocate for the research and preservation of the ancient monuments and, in 1882, co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole, curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards was to serve as joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death some 14 years later.
With the aims of advancing the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned her other literary work to concentrate solely on Egyptology. In this field she contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that work, and to the Standard Dictionary. As part of her efforts Edwards embarked on an ambitious lecture tour of the United States in the period 1889–1890. The content of these lectures was later published under the title Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorer (1891).
Amelia Edwards died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on the 15 April 1892, bequeathing her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, together with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology. She was buried in St Mary's Church Henbury, Bristol,
Wikipedia: Amelia B. Edwards
Edwards' first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel of bigamy, that solidly established her reputation as a novelist. She spent considerable time and effort on their settings and backgrounds, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the researching and writing of each. This painstaking work paid off, her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), emerged as a run-away success which went to 15 editions.
In the winter of 1873–1874, accompanied by several friends, Edwards toured Egypt, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures, both ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the companions visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel where they remained for six weeks. During this last period, a member of Edwards' party, the English painter Andrew McCallum, discovered a previously-unknown sanctuary which bore her name for some time afterwards. Having once returned to the UK, Edwards proceeded to write a vivid description of her Nile voyage, publishing the resulting book in 1876 under the title of A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Enhanced with her own hand-drawn illustrations, the travelogue became an immediate bestseller.
Edwards' travels in Egypt had made her aware of the increasing threat directed towards the ancient monuments by tourism and modern development. Determined to stem these threats by the force of public awareness and scientific endeavour, Edwards became a tireless public advocate for the research and preservation of the ancient monuments and, in 1882, co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole, curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards was to serve as joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death some 14 years later.
With the aims of advancing the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned her other literary work to concentrate solely on Egyptology. In this field she contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that work, and to the Standard Dictionary. As part of her efforts Edwards embarked on an ambitious lecture tour of the United States in the period 1889–1890. The content of these lectures was later published under the title Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorer (1891).
Amelia Edwards died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on the 15 April 1892, bequeathing her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, together with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology. She was buried in St Mary's Church Henbury, Bristol,
Wikipedia: Amelia B. Edwards
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 11, 2023
Entertaining listening 🎧
I read this as part of The Fourth Ghost Story Megapack. It is a short story about a man riding a train with another man, who turn out to be missing. The investagation leads to murder and riding the four-fifteen with a ghost. I would highly recommend this megapack too readers of fantasy haunting horror ghost 👻 stories. Enjoy the adventure of reading all kinds of different books. 2022 😎🎉✨
I listened to this as part of the Classic Tales of Horror - 500+ Stories. It was very enjoyable 2023
I read this as part of The Fourth Ghost Story Megapack. It is a short story about a man riding a train with another man, who turn out to be missing. The investagation leads to murder and riding the four-fifteen with a ghost. I would highly recommend this megapack too readers of fantasy haunting horror ghost 👻 stories. Enjoy the adventure of reading all kinds of different books. 2022 😎🎉✨
I listened to this as part of the Classic Tales of Horror - 500+ Stories. It was very enjoyable 2023
June 1, 2014
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
Opening lines:
The events which I am about to relate took place between nine and ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring, the peace of Paris had been concluded since March, our commercial relations with the Russian empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend, Jonathan Jelf, Esq., of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling in the interests of the well known firm in which it is my lot to be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary to pass some weeks among the trading ports of the Baltic; whence it came that the year was already far spent before I again set foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest during the more genial Christmas-tide.
Opening lines:
The events which I am about to relate took place between nine and ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring, the peace of Paris had been concluded since March, our commercial relations with the Russian empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend, Jonathan Jelf, Esq., of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling in the interests of the well known firm in which it is my lot to be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary to pass some weeks among the trading ports of the Baltic; whence it came that the year was already far spent before I again set foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest during the more genial Christmas-tide.
September 9, 2020
Intriguing story, keeps you on your toes. The end, though, was kind of unsatisfactory.
October 17, 2016
I've arranged my thoughts on this short story, which is not to be confused with "The Phantom Coach," into a haiku:
"No vague, eerie hints.
Some ghosts cannot be bothered
With being spooky."
"No vague, eerie hints.
Some ghosts cannot be bothered
With being spooky."
April 20, 2023
When a man meets a man on the train, he soon finds out that the man was wanted for absconding with 75K of railway money or did he? No Spoilers! Highly Recommend this short story!
November 15, 2023
Amelia B. Edwards' "The Four-Fifteen Express" is a short ghost story that is not apparent right off that a ghost is involved whereas the old time radio adaptation from "The Weird Circle" January 15, 1944 is quite different and gives a ghost off the bat but in the end there is a question of a ghost is nullified in general.
Story in short- Mr. Langford comes back to England after traveling abroad to visit his friend, Jelf's estate but finds a disappearance on the train baffling in the least.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2283
Jonathan Jelf, Esquire, of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2290
It was a foggy afternoon, singularly warm for the fourth of December, and I had arranged to leave London by the 4.15 express.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2304
His name was Dwerrihouse; he was a lawyer by profession; and, if I was not greatly mistaken, was first cousin to the wife of my host. I knew also that he was a man eminently “well to do,” both as regarded his professional and private means. The Jelfs entertained him with that sort of observant courtesy which falls to the lot of the rich relation; the children made much of him; and the old butler, albeit somewhat surly “to the general,” treated him with deference. I thought, observing him
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2307
by the vague mixture of lamplight and twilight, that Mrs. Jelf’s cousin looked all the worse for the three years’ wear and tear which had gone over his head since our last meeting. He was very pale, and had a restless light in his eye that I did not remember to have observed before. The anxious lines, too, about his mouth were deepened, and there was a cavernous hollow look about his cheeks and temples which seemed to speak of sickness or sorrow.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2316
“Langford — William Langford. I have known Jonathan Jelf since we were boys together at Merchant Taylor’s, and I generally spend a few weeks at Dumbleton in the shooting season. I suppose we are bound for the same destination?”
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2333
“You are an East Anglian director, I presume?” “My interest in the company,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, “is threefold. I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2334
head of the firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company’s principal solicitor.” Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on to tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he had overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained with a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity of one squire; the impracticability of another; the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2338
indignation of the rector whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference of the Stockbridge townspeople, who could not be brought to see that their most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the Great East Anglian line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the unheard-of difficulties attending the Common question, were each and all laid before me with a circumstantiality that possessed the deepest interest for my excellent fellow-traveler, but none whatever for myself.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2345
“Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down.” “Seventy-live thousand pounds, cash down,” I repeated, in the liveliest tone I could assume. “That is a heavy sum.” “A heavy sum to carry here,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, pointing significantly to his breast-pocket; “but a mere fraction of what we shall ultimately have to pay.” “You do not mean to say that you have seventy-five thousand
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2350
pounds at this moment upon your person?” I exclaimed.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2372
“Ticket, Sir!” said he. “I am for Clayborough,” I replied, holding out the tiny pink card. He took it; glanced at it by the light of his little lantern; gave it back; looked, as I fancied, somewhat sharply at my fellow-traveler, and disappeared. “He did not ask for yours,” I said with some surprise. “They never do,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse. “They all know me; and of course, I travel free.”
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
When Langford goes on the train he meets Dwerrihouse, the cousin of Jelf's wife on the train. Dwerrihouse could not go straight to his cousin's home because of business and he has a large sum of money in hi as pocket. When Langford finds that Dwerrihouse left something behind, he tries to find his friend but soon finds him talking to a man, which both disappear. He finds out at the Jelfs that Dwerrihouse has not been found and thought to have left without a trace with the money. Langford is questioned and the man he says was next to him was not going seen by others. Langford refuses to say he was dreaming and it is found that an employee of the company robbed and accidentally killed Dwerrihouse. So a ghost must have directed all and the body is found.
The radio program had a ghost as a ploy but the deaths that occurred were from two lovers trying to gain monetary. It was off the wall mystery with Langford as a detective and finding out about the money and the murders with an assistant. It was strange the the woman whose mother was killed on the train for her knowledge was not that upset about her lover killing her. Just plain strange, this program is usually pretty close to the story and more enjoyable.
Story in short- Mr. Langford comes back to England after traveling abroad to visit his friend, Jelf's estate but finds a disappearance on the train baffling in the least.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2283
Jonathan Jelf, Esquire, of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2290
It was a foggy afternoon, singularly warm for the fourth of December, and I had arranged to leave London by the 4.15 express.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2304
His name was Dwerrihouse; he was a lawyer by profession; and, if I was not greatly mistaken, was first cousin to the wife of my host. I knew also that he was a man eminently “well to do,” both as regarded his professional and private means. The Jelfs entertained him with that sort of observant courtesy which falls to the lot of the rich relation; the children made much of him; and the old butler, albeit somewhat surly “to the general,” treated him with deference. I thought, observing him
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2307
by the vague mixture of lamplight and twilight, that Mrs. Jelf’s cousin looked all the worse for the three years’ wear and tear which had gone over his head since our last meeting. He was very pale, and had a restless light in his eye that I did not remember to have observed before. The anxious lines, too, about his mouth were deepened, and there was a cavernous hollow look about his cheeks and temples which seemed to speak of sickness or sorrow.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2316
“Langford — William Langford. I have known Jonathan Jelf since we were boys together at Merchant Taylor’s, and I generally spend a few weeks at Dumbleton in the shooting season. I suppose we are bound for the same destination?”
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2333
“You are an East Anglian director, I presume?” “My interest in the company,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, “is threefold. I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2334
head of the firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company’s principal solicitor.” Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on to tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he had overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained with a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity of one squire; the impracticability of another; the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2338
indignation of the rector whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference of the Stockbridge townspeople, who could not be brought to see that their most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the Great East Anglian line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the unheard-of difficulties attending the Common question, were each and all laid before me with a circumstantiality that possessed the deepest interest for my excellent fellow-traveler, but none whatever for myself.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2345
“Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down.” “Seventy-live thousand pounds, cash down,” I repeated, in the liveliest tone I could assume. “That is a heavy sum.” “A heavy sum to carry here,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, pointing significantly to his breast-pocket; “but a mere fraction of what we shall ultimately have to pay.” “You do not mean to say that you have seventy-five thousand
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2350
pounds at this moment upon your person?” I exclaimed.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2372
“Ticket, Sir!” said he. “I am for Clayborough,” I replied, holding out the tiny pink card. He took it; glanced at it by the light of his little lantern; gave it back; looked, as I fancied, somewhat sharply at my fellow-traveler, and disappeared. “He did not ask for yours,” I said with some surprise. “They never do,” replied Mr. Dwerrihouse. “They all know me; and of course, I travel free.”
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
When Langford goes on the train he meets Dwerrihouse, the cousin of Jelf's wife on the train. Dwerrihouse could not go straight to his cousin's home because of business and he has a large sum of money in hi as pocket. When Langford finds that Dwerrihouse left something behind, he tries to find his friend but soon finds him talking to a man, which both disappear. He finds out at the Jelfs that Dwerrihouse has not been found and thought to have left without a trace with the money. Langford is questioned and the man he says was next to him was not going seen by others. Langford refuses to say he was dreaming and it is found that an employee of the company robbed and accidentally killed Dwerrihouse. So a ghost must have directed all and the body is found.
The radio program had a ghost as a ploy but the deaths that occurred were from two lovers trying to gain monetary. It was off the wall mystery with Langford as a detective and finding out about the money and the murders with an assistant. It was strange the the woman whose mother was killed on the train for her knowledge was not that upset about her lover killing her. Just plain strange, this program is usually pretty close to the story and more enjoyable.
August 3, 2016
Ms. Edwards is known for her ghost story "Phantom Coach" but this story is every bit as good. It is a very good mystery. Add a ghost on a train and you have some great reading.
December 18, 2022
On a grey and foggy December afternoon, a traveller finds himself sharing his private compartment on the four-fifteen express train out of London...
This was quite good, it had me thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Well read and filled with quite a bit of apprehension.
This was quite good, it had me thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Well read and filled with quite a bit of apprehension.
March 30, 2024
“Could I dream of a branch line that I had never heard of?”
“Regard murder as a fine art”
A short but powerful ghost story that solves a murder case.....superb writing and well done.
Characters: Mr. Langford, John Dwerrihouse, Mr Hicks, Jonathan Jelf, Station Guard, Mr. Augustus Raikes
Places: Clayborough, East Anglia, Express Train, Train Station
“Regard murder as a fine art”
A short but powerful ghost story that solves a murder case.....superb writing and well done.
Characters: Mr. Langford, John Dwerrihouse, Mr Hicks, Jonathan Jelf, Station Guard, Mr. Augustus Raikes
Places: Clayborough, East Anglia, Express Train, Train Station
January 26, 2026
Quite a dull horror. I listened to the audiobook from start to finish. If it hadn't been narrated by Simon Stanhope, I seriously doubt I would've finished it. I was hoping for a ghost/horror story, one or the other, but felt like this failed to deliver on both counts.
March 28, 2019
Delightful mystery!
September 20, 2020
2.75 stars (ok)
January 7, 2022
Unremarkable.
March 25, 2024
Very well narrated, it keeps a good pace up to a rather not so good ending.
December 8, 2025
I actually listened to this on Tony Walker's Classic Ghost Stories Podcast. Great narration, intriguing ghost story with a Christmas setting.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews