DI Hillary Greene, now a civilian consultant to the Thames Valley police, is taking some vacation (she would call it a holiday), heading to Hay-on-Rye in Wales, the town famous for its bookstores. It’s something of a working vacation – she’s published a crime novel, and she’s planning to visit the bookstores to promote the book.
Staying a small inn, she’s charmed by both the inn and the other guests, a fairly broad array of people from England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Unted States. When it’s proposed that they all take the steam railway up a nearby mountain, Hillary goes along, although the small rail cars mean she must ride in another car. Which turns out to be a good thing, because one of the guests is murdered, and no one saw it happen.
If anyone knows the drill, it’s Hillary. She tells the others what to do, arranges for the police to come, convinces the constable to call in homicide detectives – and she inevitably finds herself co-opted into the investigation (“seconded” is the official term). To complicate matters even further, a local hoodlum decides to target Hillary and find a convenient way to kill her.
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| Faith Martin |
Murder on the Train is the 21st and so far final novel in the DI Hillary Greene series by British author Faith Martin. Published in 2024, it’s as good as any of its predecessors; Martin has maintained a high level of quality throughout the series. There’s no word as yet when or if there will be a 22nd story; Martin has been developing another series, and the Hillary Greene series has been considerably deemphasized on her web site.
In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.
I’ve read all 21 books in the DI Hillary Greene series and enjoyed every one of them. Here’s hoping that she’ll make another appearance.
Related:
Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.
Murder at the University by Faith Martin.
Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.
Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.
Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.
Murder at Home by Faith Martin.
Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.
Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.
Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.
Murder at Work by Faith Martin.
Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.
Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.
Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.
Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.
Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.
Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin.
Hillary’s Back! by Faith Martin.
Murder Now and Then by Faith Martin.
Murder in the Parish by Faith Martin.
Some Monday Readings
Haunted by the Ghost of Evangeline – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.
Anatomy of a British screen classic – Jeffrey Meyers at The Critic Magazine.
Places That Remember Themselves: The Erosion of Memory in an Unmoored World – Holly Stockley at Front Porch Republic.
Splendor of Fire, Speed of Light: A Meander around St. Patrick – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.
Patrick: self-consciousness and sainthood – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.
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