The Railway Murders: Ten Classic True Crime Stories

by Jonathan Goodman

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: True Crime

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Jonathan Goodman was one of Britain's leading historian of crime. The American critic and historian Jacques Barzun described him as "the greatest living master of the true-crime literature", and Julian Symons, another big name in true-crime, thought of him as "the premier investigator of crime past".

His career as a full-time writer began in the 1970s when he edited the Celebrated Trials series which itself was a successor to Notable British Trials. Then in the 1980s, he worked on numerous anthologies, such as The Railway Murders (1984) and The Seaside Murders (1985), often persuading his many friends to provide a chapter and then writing a short introduction. He also continued to research old murder cases, writing books on the Newcastle upon Tyne murder of Evelyn Foster, the New York locked-room mystery of card-playing womaniser Joseph Elwell and, in 1990, The Passing of Starr Faithfull, the daughter of a Manhattan society couple whose body was washed up on Long Beach, New York, in 1931, for which he received the Crime Writers' Association's gold dagger for non-fiction.

He is most well known for uncovering a solution to Britain's most baffling real-life whodunnit, the murder of Julia Wallace in Liverpool in 1931; he not only exonerated the dead woman's husband but identified and traced the man he believed to be the real murderer. This was documented in The Killing of Julia Wallace (1969).

Reviews

[Bettye McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although written in the stilted language of the past, there are several vintage true stories of murders committed on trains or otherwise connected to the railway. Some of the crimes are still unsolved.

If you like vintage true crime, I recommend this book.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

v. dry, interesting, i slogged through the first three.

[Ginger Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of the stories leave a few loose ends, which is a bit annoying, but generally this is an entertaining little book.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of murders which either took place on or in connection with British Railways. I can't seem to find out anything about Jonathan Goodman, who has contributed one essay to the book as well as editing it. His writing style is very old fashioned in that he uses elevated language for slightly humorous intent as if he's making fun of the case.
The first railway murder was in 1864 and the case is written up by H.B. Irving, the actor, etc. who founded the Crime Club. The others follow in chronological order to 1934 and include the trunk murders that gave Brighton such a bad name. (Of course Brighton wasn't its first name - Brighthelmstone) What made these stories even more interesting was the illustrations from publications of the day, especially the 'jazz girls' of 1934 in their beach pajamas.