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28 Thrilling Stories of the Railway + Murder at the Pageant (a novel)
This volume contains 28 short stories, divided in two collections, of Thrilling Stories of the Railway; as well as one crime Murder at the Pageant. Several of these mysteries feature the author's best known Thorpe Hazell, a vegetarian railway detective, whom the author intended to be as far from Sherlock Holmes as possible... The stories were written by a clergyman -Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford-, Victor L. Whitechurch, and in its time were widely admired by big names such as Ellery Queen and Dorothy L. Sayers for their "immaculate plotting and factual he was one of the first writers to submit his manuscripts to Scotland Yard for vetting as to police procedure." The following is the complete list of BOOK ONE THRILLING STORIES OF THE RAILWAY 1. PETER CRANE'S CIGARS 2. THE TRAGEDY ON THE LONDON AND MID-NORTHERN 3. THE AFFAIR OF THE CORRIDOR EXPRESS 4. SIR GILBERT MURRELL'S PICTURE 5. HOW THE BANK WAS SAVED 6. THE AFFAIR OF THE GERMAN DISPATCH-BOX 7. HOW THE BISHOP KEPT HIS APPOINTMENT 8. THE ADVENTURE OF THE PILOT ENGINE 9. THE STOLEN NECKLACE 10. THE MYSTERY OF THE BOAT EXPRESS 11. HOW THE EXPRESS WAS SAVED 12. A CASE OF SIGNALLING 13. WINNING THE RACE 14. THE STRIKERS 15. THE RUSE THAT SUCCEEDED BOOK TWO MORE SHORT STORIES 16. THE SLIP COACH A RAILWAY ADVENTURE 17. A PERILOUS RIDE 18. THE CONVICT'S REVENGE 19. IN THE ROCKHURST THE GANGER'S STORY 20. A WARNING IN THE STORY OF A RAILWAY MYSTERY 21. A JUMP FOR AN ENGINE-DRIVER'S STORY 22. SPECIAL WORKING A STATION-MASTER'S STORY 23. PIERRE COURNET'S LAST AN INCIDENT OF THE PRUSSIAN ADVANCE ON PARIS 24. BETWEEN TWO THE STORY OF A LOST GUN 25. THE TRIUMPH OF SETH P. TUCKER 26. A POLICY OF SILENCE 27. THE ROMANCE OF THE "SOUTHERN QUEEN": TOLD BY THE FIREMAN 28. IN A TIGHT FIX BOOK THREE Murder at the Pageant
445 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2014
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13 people want to read
About the author
Victor L. Whitechurch
165 books17 followersVictor Lorenzo Whitechurch was born in 1868, was educated at Chichester Grammar School and Chichester Theological College and eventually became a canon of the Anglican Church, living and working for many years in the country rather than in towns and cities.
He held various positions as curate before he became vicar of St. Michael's, Blewbury in 1904. In 1913 he became Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford, and an honorary canon of Christ Church and in 1918 he became Rural Dean of Aylesbury.
He began his writing career with religious works, as befitted his profession, and edited 'The Chronicle of St George' in 1891 before producing his own work 'The Course of Justice' in 1903. He wrote his first quasi-detective novel, also considered as a clerical romance, in 1904 when 'The Canon in Residence' was published and was later adapted for stage and radio.
He also contributed detective stories to the Strand Magazine, the Railway Magazine and Pearson's and Harmsworth's Magazines. Some of his railway stories were published as 'Thrilling Stories of the Railway' in 1912, 15 stories in all, nine of which feature his specialst in railway detection, Thorpe Hazell, a strict vegetarian.
After producing a variety of romantic novels, he returned to thrillers with 'The Templeton Case', 1924, and another collection of short stories on a railway and spy theme, 'The Adventures of Captain Ivan Koravitch' in 1925.
Two quite different books appeared from his pen in 1927, 'The Truth in Christ Jesus' and 'The Crime at Diana's Pool' before he devoted his final years almost solely to detective fiction, writing four further such novels between 1927 and 1932, the last of them 'Murder at the College' written after he had suffered a long and debilitating illness.
Although his thriller output was relatively low, 12 of his 27 books being of the genre, Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor in their splendid 'Catalogue of Crime' wrote of him, "He was the greatest improviser in the genre - all but one of his stories has distinct merit." Ellery Queen and Dorothy L Sayers meanwhile admired his books for their "immaculate plotting and factual accuracy" believing him to be "one of the first writers to submit his manuscripts to Scotland Yard for vetting as to police procedure."
He died in 1933.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
He held various positions as curate before he became vicar of St. Michael's, Blewbury in 1904. In 1913 he became Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford, and an honorary canon of Christ Church and in 1918 he became Rural Dean of Aylesbury.
He began his writing career with religious works, as befitted his profession, and edited 'The Chronicle of St George' in 1891 before producing his own work 'The Course of Justice' in 1903. He wrote his first quasi-detective novel, also considered as a clerical romance, in 1904 when 'The Canon in Residence' was published and was later adapted for stage and radio.
He also contributed detective stories to the Strand Magazine, the Railway Magazine and Pearson's and Harmsworth's Magazines. Some of his railway stories were published as 'Thrilling Stories of the Railway' in 1912, 15 stories in all, nine of which feature his specialst in railway detection, Thorpe Hazell, a strict vegetarian.
After producing a variety of romantic novels, he returned to thrillers with 'The Templeton Case', 1924, and another collection of short stories on a railway and spy theme, 'The Adventures of Captain Ivan Koravitch' in 1925.
Two quite different books appeared from his pen in 1927, 'The Truth in Christ Jesus' and 'The Crime at Diana's Pool' before he devoted his final years almost solely to detective fiction, writing four further such novels between 1927 and 1932, the last of them 'Murder at the College' written after he had suffered a long and debilitating illness.
Although his thriller output was relatively low, 12 of his 27 books being of the genre, Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor in their splendid 'Catalogue of Crime' wrote of him, "He was the greatest improviser in the genre - all but one of his stories has distinct merit." Ellery Queen and Dorothy L Sayers meanwhile admired his books for their "immaculate plotting and factual accuracy" believing him to be "one of the first writers to submit his manuscripts to Scotland Yard for vetting as to police procedure."
He died in 1933.
Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2010
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