A riveting new adventure for Jim Stringer, Andrew Martin's celebrated 'Steam Detective'.

It is March 1914, and Jim Stringer is uneasy about his next assignment.

It's not so much the prospect of a Scarborough lodging house in the gloomy off-season that bothers him, or even the fact that the last railwayman to stay in the house has disappeared without trace. It's more that his governor, Chief Inspector Saul Weatherhill, seems to be deliberately holding back details of the case - and that he's been sent to Scarborough with a trigger-happy assistant.

The lodging house is called Paradise, but, as Jim discovers, it's hardly that in reality. It is, however, home to the seductive and beautiful Amanda Rickerby, a woman evidently capable of derailing Jim's marriage - and a good deal more besides.

As a storm brews in Scarborough, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Jim will ever ride the train back to York.

'Crime dispatched with a Dickensian relish . . . Delectable stuff.' Daily Express

'[Andrew Martin] is an original voice and the historical novels are the best I have read this century.' Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe