THE BLACKPOOL HIGHFLYER

A superbly atmospheric thriller of sabotage, suspicion and steam, ''The Blackpool Highflyer'' brings a new twist to tales of Edwardian England, steam railways and amateur sleuthing. When railwayman Jim Stringer is assigned to drive holiday makers to the seaside resort of Blackpool in the hot summer of 1905, he thinks he''s struck lucky. But his dreams of beer and pretty women are soon destroyed - when his high-speed train meets a huge millstone on the line. Who wanted to derail the packed train? And did they want to kill everyone on board, or just one passenger? Desperately seeking the saboteur, Jim is drawn into the fringes of Blackpool Central, Europe''s busiest station. He discovers a murky world of dandies, fraudsters and ventriloquists, shifty revolutionaries and textile magnates. In the summer heat, dazed by the sun and by the roaring fire he stokes, Jim begins to understand that the more he investigates, the longer his list of suspects will become... Set in 1905, Martin''s second Jim Stringer mystery (after 2004''s The Necropolis Railway) starts slowly but builds a head of steam like the monster locomotive Jim stokes for ''Lanky,'' the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. A passenger dies when a huge grindstone on the tracks derails a train on an excursion to seaside Blackpool. Jim begins to suspect class warfare when a young socialist distributes tracts in Jim''s hometown of Halifax, urging workers to shun holidays organized by mill owners. A fallen tree on another rail line further suggests conspiracy, as does the disappearance of smartly dressed Clive, the engine driver on Jim''s next run. Lanky management''s paltry £5 reward hardly seems likely to garner much information, so newlywed Jim turns to comely Lydia, a mill clerk he simply calls ''the wife,'' for much needed help. Getting used to Jim''s chatty Cockney narration takes time, but as the suspense rises, readers will be captivated.