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Inspector Head #11
Problem By Rail: An Inspector Head Mystery
Having been a train guard for many years, Robert Potter has become adept at dealing with difficult passengers. But even he is not prepared for the startling situation that confronts him on the 11.45 from London. Attending to a pulled communication cord just outside Westingborough, he discovers a stark naked young gentleman, Leo Thane, who claims to have been the victim of a very comprehensive robbery. More horrifying, however, is the mutilated corpse in the compartment next door. As Superintendent Wadden remarks to Inspector Head, not only has the murder rate in Westingborough risen of late, but criminals have apparently started sending new cases by train... Originally published in 1939, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of detection.
Kindle Edition
Published November 29, 2020
8 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
E. Charles Vivian
99 books3 followersWorking name of UK editor and author of popular fiction (1882-1947), born Charles Henry Cannell but apparently changing his name legally to Evelyn Charles Henry Vivian in early adulthood, though he wrote some non-genre novels as Charles Cannell, and some short fiction as by Sydney Barrie Lynd, Galbraith Nicolson and A. K. Walton.
Prior to becoming a writer, Cannell was a former soldier in the Boer War and journalist for The Daily Telegraph. Cannell began writing novels under the pen-name 'E. Charles Vivian' in 1907. He then started writing fantastic stories for the arts magazine "Colour" and the aviation journal "Flying" (which Cannell edited after leaving the Telegraph) in 1917–18, sometimes publishing them under the pseudonym 'A.K. Walton'. Vivian is best known for his "Lost World" fantasy novels such as "City of Wonder" and his series of novels featuring supernatural detective Gregory George Gordon Green or 'Gees' which he wrote under his 'Jack Mann' pseudonym. Critic Jack Adrian has praised Cannell's lost-world stories as "bursting with ideas and colour and pace", and "superb examples of a fascinating breed". For younger readers, Vivian wrote "Robin Hood and his Merry Men", a retelling of the Robin Hood legend.
Vivian also edited three British pulp magazines. From 1918 to 1922 Vivian edited "The Novel Magazine", and later, for the publisher Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950), Hutchinson's "Adventure-Story Magazine" (which serialised three of Vivian's novels) and Hutchinson's "Mystery-Story Magazine". In addition to UK writers, Vivian often reprinted fiction from American pulp magazines such as "Adventure and Weird Tales" in the Hutchinson publications.
Outside the field of fiction, Vivian was noted for the non-fiction book, "A History of Aeronautics".
Some of his shorter fiction – including "The Fourth Arm ('War in the Clouds'): a Strange Story" (August 1915 Pearson's Magazine), "The Multiple Cube" (13 June 1917 'Flying') and "The Upper Levels: a Fantasy of Tomorrow" (31 July 1918 Flying) – was sf, with hints of the Pax Aeronautica, especially his stories in "Flying". A prolific author, with nearly 100 identified titles between 1907 and his death, he is now best remembered for the 'Gees' sequence of novels (see listing on the link below), all written as by Jack Mann, about a psychic detective (Gregory George Gordon Green) whose cases sometimes involve sf-like phenomena – e.g., travel through other Dimensions – but are essentially fantasies, the most famous of them being "Grey Shapes" (1937), a Werewolf tale; "Maker of Shadows" (1938), featuring a 'She' figure (> Immortality), is also of interest.
Much of Vivian's prolific output had a mystical (even at times mystagogical) tinge. Some of his individual novels, like "Passion-Fruit" (1912), had fantasy elements, and several were 'Lost-World' tales, including: "City of Wonder" (1922), which features Asian survivors from Lemuria in a land called Kir Asa; the 'Aia' sequence, comprising "Fields of Sleep" (1923), in which Babylonian survivors are trapped in a Malaysian valley by a strange plant within range of whose aroma, a kind of Basilisk – as, once it is inhaled, one must remain in range or die – and "People of the Darkness" (1924), set in an Underground world inhabited by a tentacled species who were originally slaves in Atlantis; "The Lady of the Terraces" (1925) and its sequel "A King There Was" (1926), which feature pre-Incan survivals and further hints of Atlantis; and "Woman Dominant" (1929), set in Asia, where an aged woman rules a land through the agency of a Drug which turns men into half-witted slaves.
Vivian's most straightforward sf tale, "Star Dust" (1925), describes an inventor/scientist's attempts to make the world better by indiscriminately transmuting dross into gold (> Transmutation); this (he thinks) will make some sort of Utopia inevitable.
- See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Prior to becoming a writer, Cannell was a former soldier in the Boer War and journalist for The Daily Telegraph. Cannell began writing novels under the pen-name 'E. Charles Vivian' in 1907. He then started writing fantastic stories for the arts magazine "Colour" and the aviation journal "Flying" (which Cannell edited after leaving the Telegraph) in 1917–18, sometimes publishing them under the pseudonym 'A.K. Walton'. Vivian is best known for his "Lost World" fantasy novels such as "City of Wonder" and his series of novels featuring supernatural detective Gregory George Gordon Green or 'Gees' which he wrote under his 'Jack Mann' pseudonym. Critic Jack Adrian has praised Cannell's lost-world stories as "bursting with ideas and colour and pace", and "superb examples of a fascinating breed". For younger readers, Vivian wrote "Robin Hood and his Merry Men", a retelling of the Robin Hood legend.
Vivian also edited three British pulp magazines. From 1918 to 1922 Vivian edited "The Novel Magazine", and later, for the publisher Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950), Hutchinson's "Adventure-Story Magazine" (which serialised three of Vivian's novels) and Hutchinson's "Mystery-Story Magazine". In addition to UK writers, Vivian often reprinted fiction from American pulp magazines such as "Adventure and Weird Tales" in the Hutchinson publications.
Outside the field of fiction, Vivian was noted for the non-fiction book, "A History of Aeronautics".
Some of his shorter fiction – including "The Fourth Arm ('War in the Clouds'): a Strange Story" (August 1915 Pearson's Magazine), "The Multiple Cube" (13 June 1917 'Flying') and "The Upper Levels: a Fantasy of Tomorrow" (31 July 1918 Flying) – was sf, with hints of the Pax Aeronautica, especially his stories in "Flying". A prolific author, with nearly 100 identified titles between 1907 and his death, he is now best remembered for the 'Gees' sequence of novels (see listing on the link below), all written as by Jack Mann, about a psychic detective (Gregory George Gordon Green) whose cases sometimes involve sf-like phenomena – e.g., travel through other Dimensions – but are essentially fantasies, the most famous of them being "Grey Shapes" (1937), a Werewolf tale; "Maker of Shadows" (1938), featuring a 'She' figure (> Immortality), is also of interest.
Much of Vivian's prolific output had a mystical (even at times mystagogical) tinge. Some of his individual novels, like "Passion-Fruit" (1912), had fantasy elements, and several were 'Lost-World' tales, including: "City of Wonder" (1922), which features Asian survivors from Lemuria in a land called Kir Asa; the 'Aia' sequence, comprising "Fields of Sleep" (1923), in which Babylonian survivors are trapped in a Malaysian valley by a strange plant within range of whose aroma, a kind of Basilisk – as, once it is inhaled, one must remain in range or die – and "People of the Darkness" (1924), set in an Underground world inhabited by a tentacled species who were originally slaves in Atlantis; "The Lady of the Terraces" (1925) and its sequel "A King There Was" (1926), which feature pre-Incan survivals and further hints of Atlantis; and "Woman Dominant" (1929), set in Asia, where an aged woman rules a land through the agency of a Drug which turns men into half-witted slaves.
Vivian's most straightforward sf tale, "Star Dust" (1925), describes an inventor/scientist's attempts to make the world better by indiscriminately transmuting dross into gold (> Transmutation); this (he thinks) will make some sort of Utopia inevitable.
- See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 14, 2020
In the last three in the Inspector Head series the author has put more into portraying well-rounded characters than into the posing of a puzzle.
Despite a number of red herring, mostly connected with the murdered man's Indian Army background, this was not difficult to solve.
Not the best in this interesting series.
Despite a number of red herring, mostly connected with the murdered man's Indian Army background, this was not difficult to solve.
Not the best in this interesting series.
December 22, 2020
Quite an enjoyable read but not too difficult to figure it out. I like Inspector Head but would have liked a bit more personal info about him. His superintendent was described far more than him. My first time with this author and if I can find them, I would like to read more.
January 8, 2021
Of its time
This is probably the best of this series, I did not like the first two thirds of them at all. This one ? well, a bit of a muddle with all these red nosed Indian services chaps about to make it difficult,but you could tell who,at about a third of the way through.
This is probably the best of this series, I did not like the first two thirds of them at all. This one ? well, a bit of a muddle with all these red nosed Indian services chaps about to make it difficult,but you could tell who,at about a third of the way through.
October 12, 2021
Too And Dragy
I found this book was far too slow to get into and a bit too wordy, Supt Waddon seemed to be a bit of an old fool and what's this blowing about?,is he a policeman or a wind tunnel
I found this book was far too slow to get into and a bit too wordy, Supt Waddon seemed to be a bit of an old fool and what's this blowing about?,is he a policeman or a wind tunnel
April 13, 2021
great fun and window into the past
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews