Last Train to Lime Street

Mersey Murder Mysteries #6

by Brian L. Porter

As the midnight train from Manchester to Liverpool approaches the city, it hits the body of a man. After the police look into the case, they learn that the man was a well-known movie director - of the adult variety.

Soon, they find out that the man's list of enemies is almost as long as the railway line from Manchester to Liverpool, with two ex-wives who both have a motive for murder.

But is his murder personal or professional, and who is the killer?



★★★★★ - "I highly recommend this series, not only to lovers of British novels but to readers of all mystery and crime stories."

★★★★★ - "Written in Porter's upbeat, witty and British vernacular style, Last Train to Lime Street is a cracking read."

Genres: Mystery

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2018

About the author

Formerly a member of the Royal Air Force, Brian L Porter is an award-winning author, and a dedicated dog rescuer, with the distinction of having more than twenty Amazon #1 bestsellers to his name. He has written under three pseudonyms, with bestsellers coming under each of his writing guises. The majority of those have come under his Brian L Porter name with four coming under his Harry Porter and Juan Pablo Jalisco names.

Nowadays, he divides his time between writing his popular Mersey Murder Mystery series of books, and his immensely successful true-life Family of Rescue Dogs series, all featuring the dogs that form part of his own family, and all having been Amazon #1 bestsellers.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you were to look over my previously read book list, you'd notice ~75% are mysteries that are part of a book series. I enjoy getting to know a group of characters in a realistic setting who work together (or sometimes against) trying to discover what secrets led to a murder. Brian L. Porter's 'The Mersey Murder Mysteries' series provides all that and more. I'd finished reading three of five previously written when his latest was released this month. Although I try to read in order, these can be read out of order as they're stand-alone mysteries based on the fictional Merseyside Police Specialist Murder Investigation Team. If you read out of order, you might find someone married in a later book and single in an earlier book, but otherwise, it should be okay. Kudos to the author for building a great atmosphere and backdrop to tell his stories about the bizarre and nasty murders his special investigation team handles.

In Last Train to Lime Street, a train engineer making one of his final stops before retirement is navigating between stations when he sees something fall from a bridge. He tries to stop the train, but a collision is inevitable. He thought it was a body, but when he stumbles from the train car, it's way more than he expected. Porter viscerally describes the impact of the train scattering body parts everywhere, and we soon realize, the body was naked and its severed head was actually cut prior to the collision. Who is the victim? When he's got no identification and several parts are still missing, this won't be an easy case. Enter detectives Izzie Drake and Andy Ross who quickly find a connection to a man recently reported as missing -- an American transplant who runs a very successful adult entertainment company. Readers learn all about the porn industry through the victim's business partners and three wives (1 current, 2 ex). Was he killed for something related to the mob-connected film company, a trick gone wrong, or some other more personal connection few knew anything about?

Our key detectives have to trace the path the victim took in the 2 days since leaving his wife and home for a business meeting. No one will admit to anything. Everyone says he was a good guy. Porter's highly adept at creating a fine balance between educating readers on how the porn industry works versus what may or may not have contributed to the death. At times, the material can be a bit graphic, which for me was completely okay. It's handled well, and it's necessary to paint a full picture of the lifestyle and potential areas for clues. Not for the faint of heart, it delivers a powerful punch when you find out who the killer is and why (s)he felt the need to dispose of this well-known film star and business owner.

I've not read many UK police procedural series, but I love Agatha Christie's books and the Midsomer Murders television show. I get the same traditional British feel in Porter's books as I do from these other treats, but Porter's are set in the early 2000s so they feel more current and urban. This is not your quaint little town that has a murder every so often. Drake and Ross handle only the intense! I love being able to get inside the head and actions of the entire team... we get the perspective from ~10 police members including a German transplant visiting for 2 years and those from other part of the UK who contribute to researching the case. Porter drops in a few wonderful personal stories for the primary detectives on the case so we know what's going on in terms of marriages, children, relocation, and family death. It makes you feel like you're reading about old friends when you stick with a series like this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest edition and am looking forward to reading the earlier two I hadn't gotten to yet. I have a goal: to be current before Porter releases book #7 in this series in early 2019. Why don't you hurry up and read them so we can buddy read the next together?

[John Dizon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last Train to Lime Street by Brian L. Porter is an intriguing diversion from the traditions of his Merseyside Police series. Once again we are acquainted with Inspector Andy Ross, his right-hand woman Izzie Drake and their merry band of sleuths. Only this time they are trying to solve the murder of porn director Joey Slimani. The adult filmmaker’s mangled corpse is found after being hit by a train. Yet the Mersey crew suspect the major damage was done after the fact, with suggestions of a homicide having been entirely obliterated.

It leads us across the path of Graham Bull, a devout churchgoer with a degree in dentistry who is a pillar of his community. Yet Andy and Izzie find evidence indicating that Bull is far more judgmental than his theology might allow for. They find themselves delving into a dark world where lives are destroyed and fortunes gained by the roll of a camera. Yet they are reminded that theirs is not to judge, only to uphold the law. The question is whether Graham Bull and those like him are just as principled.

The author’s growing legion of fans will find this another of his well-crafted mysteries with lots of exciting twists and turns. For new readers, Last Train to Lime Street by Brian L. Porter is the one you want to catch.

[Carole Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly Told Murder Mystery!

I really enjoyed this! Excellent storyline and characters, which one has come to expect from this author.
There is a grisly murder to solve and the old crew of police led by Detective Inspector Andy Ross, are soon hot on the trail of the vicious murderer.

The background to murder in this book is the porn industry! It makes for a highly original tale. The characters move the plot along and because of the author’s expertise, the reader feels they are investigating the murder along with the police.

It’s a dandy story, told ably by a great novelist. Don’t miss this one!

[Ellen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob now at sixty one he had driven every type of train, and when he spotted an object falling from the bridge onto the track, he knew he had hit someone. It wasn’t suicide, the male wa naked, and throat was slit.
When they finally found out he was a porn movie director, ex wives, and disgruntled people a mile long. It took this special team to figure out, why. And why from the bridge. Keeps you reading and intrigued to try to figure this one out.

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a good book. And is well worth a read.

[Isobel Blackthorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The critical elements of a feel-good mystery are all here yet again with Brian L. Porter's latest offering, with believable and loveable characters, good plot and pacing, and plenty of twists and turns as a group of detectives struggle to solve the latest case.

This time, the team's investigation of a gruesome murder opens into the seedy world of a porn movie director. Porter handles this theme with delicacy, while portraying the prejudices and bawdy humour that would typically arise behind the scenes at a police station. Setting the theme amidst ordinary suburban lives lends Last Train to Lime Street a flavour of social realism, and allows Porter to develop and deepen his cast of regular characters whilst voicing a range of perspectives on the topic.

Written in Porter's upbeat, witty and British vernacular style, Last Train to Lime Street is a cracking read. Intriguing to the last.

[Berk Rourke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series, with Last Train being the most recent, is always brilliant in that each story can stand alone while fitting into the entire group. Ross, Izzie and the rest of the detectives in the Special Murder Squad, my term, encounter a real puzzler in this convoluted story of porn movie stars, porn movie producers and assorted problems. The course of the investigation of the murder of Joey Slimani seems to go nowhere for a time. But as always the experience and brain power of the squad begins to make inroads. Will the murderer be caught. Read this fantastic story, laugh a little, pose questions to yourself a little, and follow the thought processes of Brian Porter's signature group. Well done Brian.

[Peter Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific story, terrific storytelling.

This is the second book of the Mersey Murder Mysteries series I have read, and I am destined to read them all.
Porter has an addictive writing style (The Liverpool savvy I suppose) and creates engaging characters, the police team and the villains. In fact I have grown a real fondness for this elite murder squad, their relationships, and their personalities, all so well described. They come across as so real.
The Last Train to Lime Street, from Manchester, doesn’t get to Liverpool. As the train approaches a bridge, something is thrown onto the tracks and the train driver is powerless to prevent a collision. Getting out of the train, the driver and guard must face the gruesome scene of a naked man, in pieces, and distributed along the track and verges.
Not a naked suicide. The pathologist is able to determine that the body had been dead when thrown; the victim’s throat cut. And now the story challenges the team and the reader, for the body is that of a successful pornography film producer, his ‘wives’, all top-line porno stars themselves and living what can only be described as the rich ‘good’ life. ‘Good’ is where we face the moral dilemma as the police investigators, and the reader, enter their parallel world; their values, their relationships, their personalities, all so incongruous to not only the investigating team, but suburban people, golf club manners, and asserted polite values.
I loved the way Porter created the story like a pornographic pin ball machine, where the investigators, the reader even, is played off the bumpers, this direction, then another, and eventually the flipper sends us back up again to question our prejudices. Maybe this is influencing the investigation?
This is not just a murder mystery but an ethical challenge, and I loved it. No spoilers; you will have to read it yourself, but this is more than a run of the mill police procedural, it is a pin ball ride where you cannot begin to fathom where you will end up, or what you may feel when you get there.
I have already bought another of Porter’s books and look forward to reading that. I love a book that makes me feel, makes me question. This book does all of this and is a cracking read – I recommend it.

[Martha Cheves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last Train to Lime Street - Review by Martha A. Cheves



The funeral of Joey Slimani was indeed a low-key affair. The small chapel wasn't even half-full as his wife, Trixie and two ex-wives led the small group of mourners, the three women sitting together at the front of the room, with Mary-Beth and Lana flanking the widow, like a pair of personal bodyguards.


Dressed in black business suits sat Heinrich Braun and Stefan Schmidt, the two German pron producers who'd both had the recent business dealings with the dead man. In the same row sat Michael Powell, the dead man's solicitor, William Jennings, the Slimani's butler/manservant/part-time lover to Trixie and an unknown man who Ross surmised was Slimani's American lawyer. On the opposite side sat half a dozen men and three women who were adult movie actors and actresses who regularly appeared in movies made by Joe Slim Productions. Seated behind the group of porn stars was a rather stiff-looking individual, the captain of South Mersey Golf Club, Graham Bull, here to pay his last respects on behalf of the club and its members.



Joey Slimani's nude body had been tossed from a bridge to be mutilated by an oncoming train. He had been drugged and someone had cut his throat before the toss. Detective Inspector Andy Ross and his Special Murder Investigation Team were called in to solve the mystery of why someone would commit such a horrible form of death and mutilation. With Joey being a porn producer who produced movies of his present wife as well as his two ex-wives, the suspect list starts to take shape and the team proceeds with the idea that someone within the industry had a real hatred for Joey.



As always, with books written by this author, it became a page-turner, with me trying to make sense of just 'who done it?' The culprit was a bit of a surprise to me, as was the reason. This is Book VI of the Mersey Murder Mysteries. It is a stand alone but I suggest you consider starting with Book I and follow this team through some truly interesting mysteries.



Last Train to Lime Street

[Mary Deal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting Continuation of the Mersey Series

When I read books in a series, I enjoy when the focus is on different characters in each book even as the main characters remain strongest. But the most enjoyment of any series is when all the characters are included in the story. Such is the case with Brian L. Porter’s Last Train to Lime Street.

Another aspect of this series – I’ve read them all – is that this author knows how to make his characters real. He does this by including snippets of each character’s personal life. Story plots must be much more than the characters that are created. When we feel the characters could well be real, that is successful writing.

In this series, Detective Inspector Andy Ross and Detective Sergeant Izzie Drake have quite a few subordinates they call upon to help solve crimes assigned to their elite squad. If a reader has not read the rest of the series and starts with this book, they will have a full understanding of each and every character. Just enough is included about each character’s life, and smoothly so, that we have the total picture of each personality and the parts they play. But to digress, I would suggest to anyone fond of British mysteries to read the entire series.

In this story, a victim is thrown from an overpass over a rail line and hit by a train. As the story progresses, we learn it is the type of crime that is best handled by D.I. Ross and his Merseyside Police, Special Murder Investigation Team. Following this story, crime solving isn’t much different than what happens in the U.S. What really makes this story different throughout is the British language and jargon. These characters felt real to me. It is, in my opinion my favorite of the series, partially due to all the characters from the series being active in this plot. I highly recommend this book/series not only to lovers of British novels but to readers of all mystery and crime stories.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The elite detectives of Merseyside Police’s Special Murder Investigation Team are called in to solve extra-difficult or mysterious killings in their large metropolitan area which includes Liverpool. This case involves a naked man whose throat was slit at one location, bundled up, driven elsewhere and thrown in front of a train.

For an elite squad of detectives, this group took a long time to figure out whodunnit. The story unfolded without a sense of urgency—except for Christmas approaching, plus the threat of working through the holidays. Furthermore, there weren’t enough suspects, and I doubted the author conceived of the murderer as a minor, tertiary character who was mentioned once or twice. There were few red herrings at hand, so by eliminating the unlikeliest candidates, I settled on a culprit and waited for the reveal.

The ending was prolonged—IMHO much longer than necessary—and unnecessaryly included a blow-by-blow explanation to the wife about how they found the culprit. I prefer a cleaner finish which could easily have been accomplished with the help of an editor.

There were too many grammar and punctuation errors that made me re-read sentences and paragraphs. Again, an editor is sorely needed.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last Train is the most recent book in the Mersey Murder Mysteries series by Brian L. Porter .

Detective Inspector Andy Ross, Detective Sergeant Izzie Drake and the Special Murder Investigation Team are back with a bang.

The opening crime scene is quite graphic and definitely is not for the faint hearted , a body has been callously been thrown from a railway bridge and hit by a train (Hence my warning about the graphic scene I felt quite queasy after reading it).

D.I. Ross and his team are called in to investigate the crime , the trail leads them into the porn industry and an interesting set of characters. But is the killer to be found among them or is the team looking in the wrong place for a cold hearted killer.

I enjoyed reading the novel and would definitely say the author has delivered what his readers have come to expected from him, an interesting background ,a storyline with lots of twists turns plus a few red herring and finally an interesting set of characters some of whom you will like while others you won't .

To find out what happens pick yourself up copy.

[John Broughton · Rating 5 out of 5]

No wonder that a literary critic once described Mr Porter as ‘the master of misdirection’. In The Last Train to Lime Street, the reader is regaled with red herrings and false trails until he shares DI Ross’s frustration with a case apparently going nowhere. In policing, a change of perspective can lead to a breakthrough and once Ross and his team manage to look past the shocking world of porno films, they are able to brilliantly solve the murder of multi-millionaire pornographer, Joey Slimani. The author’s skill in characterisation is another factor in making the Mersey Mystery series so successful. Here, the novel begins with the wedding of one of the investigative team, later another has an unexpected pregnancy and there’s still room for a female detective to find romance when least expected. Yet, I feel the masterpiece is the depiction of Joey and his porn actress wife, Trixie. Even a prude can’t help but see them as warm rounded individuals, whose generosity of soul outshines the way they make their living, not an easy writing feat, that. Hats off to Mr Porter who thoroughly deserves this 5-star review.

[Michele Northwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder express

Last Train to Lime Street is a twisted tale of murder that begins when a late night train mutilates a body that drops from a bridge onto the track. With no I.D. the body is not identified for a few days until a worried wife notifies the police of a missing husband. The man was Joey Slimani, an American adult movie producer.

As D.I. Ross and his team investigate, it appears that their are a plethora of suspects who could have wanted Joey dead, including two ex-wives and a Los Angeles pornographic film-maker with Mob connections.

Porter has produced a real teasing mystery and the Liverpool detectives, while seemingly stuck for clues, eventually grind out the solution with typical British doggedness. When the murderer is revealed it is something of a surprise, but isn't that what you want from a great mystery? An excellent read, and a great addition to the Mersey Mystery series.

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding mystery. The last evening train to Lime St. hits a naked and bloody body further mangling the corpse. DI Ross and his specialized team is called in to identify the body and solve the murder. Once they identify the man they are certain his occupation must be the reason for his death. The man owns a porn movie company. Unfortunately, the keep running into blind ends, and the realization finally hits DI Ross and his capable Sgt. Izzie Drake they are looking in the wrong places. It is back to square one. They finally get a break at the man’s funeral. Someone shows up as the representative of the man’s golf club except the golf club didn’t send him. Slowly they put the pieces together, but will they be in time to stop another sadistic murder, plus prove the man has murdered before. The hour keep getting longer.

[Michael Wilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Order Number: #D01-4912759-3787844
This the first story I’ve read by Brian Porter and it won’t be the last. From the start it evoked an authentic and realistic feeling of an actual murder investigation taking place by D.I Andy Ross and his Merseyside team and I was hooked up to the last page. It was brilliantly set out with twists and turns at every stage until the culprit was finally unmasked. I can highly recommend it and look forward to the next one.

[Stuart McIntosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the seventh in the series, which I love. I love that it's set around Liverpool with authentic references, that the team are thoroughly nice characters who work well to solve the murders and that we collect their individual backstories over the series, I like that it's mostly very correct police procedures. My only drawback it that reading this on Kindle I found many, many typos that spoiled the reading experience.

[Lydia peagram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could nt put this book down. Another case for Andy and Izzy and the team.

[Susan Kasza · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Peggy J. Chambley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed the six books I have read do far. I am on the 7th and the last one. I can't wait for more. His stories are so intriguing.

[sarah buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another story you cant put down

Another book I was unable to put down.
From start to finished I was pulled into the story, wanting to know what happens next.
On to the next book.

[barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally learned the source of the title!

I liked it but a little too easy to guess the murderer. I also liked the porn stars who seemed good hearted people.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read, the victims profession was a bizarre choice and added nothing to the tale for me.

[Joseph Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read
Fascinating characters
Intriguing plot
Overall just a good read and well worth having a look at

[Judith M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting twist

I have enjoyed this whole series to date. The characters are all believable. Anyone who enjoys police procedurals will enjoy these.