The Death of Sir Martin Malprelate

In the 1840s, railway baron Sir Martin Malprelate is murdered by a spectral train, leading to an investigation by the police and senior engineer Mr. Bryde. Bryde uncovers a network of resentment and conspiracy involving corrupt politicians, agitating workers, scheming shareholders, and grotesque characters. The Murder of Sir Martin Malprelate is a vivid recreation of a London stalked by poverty and haunted by visions of demons and ghosts, driven by rationality and greed.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 14 November 2023
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

The 1840s. Railway Baron Sir Martin Malprelate has been laying waste to the warren of Camden, buying up houses and clearing streets for his new railway line linking Kings Cross with the prosperous town of Middlemarch. He stands to make his fortune ever more vast and to earn the loathing of all who attempt to stand up to him. Little wonder, then, that he meets a violent end on a foggy street after walking out of a particularly bitter meeting with outraged residents facing eviction. But the cause of his death causes more wonder. How could he have possibly fallen beneath the wells of a speeding spectral train running on tracks not yet even built?

Sir Martins death is investigated by the police, but the company employs one of its senior engineers, Mr. Bryde, to pursue his own investigation. Bryde uncovers a network of resentment and conspiracy, popular opposition to the expansion of the railways, agitating workers, scheming shareholders, corrupt politicians, and a gallery of varied and grotesque characters, all of whom had some stake in the old mans death. Lacing its realism with both social commentary and the gothic imaginations of the time, The Murder of Sir Martin Malprelate is a vivid recreation of a London stalked by poverty and haunted by visions of demons and ghosts; a world of slums, lavish wealth, and opium dens. The narrative is coloured by exotic characters all too ready to believe in the supernatural, but the plot is driven by rationality and the all-too-real motivations of greed and revenge.

The 1840s. Railway Baron Sir Martin Malprelate has been laying waste to the warren of Camden, buying up houses and clearing streets for his new railway line linking Kings Cross with the prosperous town of Middlemarch. He stands to make his fortune ever more vast and to earn the loathing of all who attempt to stand up to him. Little wonder, then, that he meets a violent end on a foggy street after walking out of a particularly bitter meeting with outraged residents facing eviction. But the cause of his death causes more wonder. How could he have possibly fallen beneath the wells of a speeding spectral train running on tracks not yet even built?

Sir Martins death is investigated by the police, but the company employs one of its senior engineers, Mr. Bryde, to pursue his own investigation. Bryde uncovers a network of resentment and conspiracy, popular opposition to the expansion of the railways, agitating workers, scheming shareholders, corrupt politicians, and a gallery of varied and grotesque characters, all of whom had some stake in the old mans death. Lacing its realism with both social commentary and the gothic imaginations of the time, The Murder of Sir Martin Malprelate is a vivid recreation of a London stalked by poverty and haunted by visions of demons and ghosts; a world of slums, lavish wealth, and opium dens. The narrative is coloured by exotic characters all too ready to believe in the supernatural, but the plot is driven by rationality and the all-too-real motivations of greed and revenge.

Weight: 346g
Dimension: 136 x 216 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781915523020
Edition number: New ed