The Body on the Train by Frances Brody, Book Review

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Another enjoyable Kate Shackleton mystery by popular historic crime author Frances Brody. Set in Yorkshire in 1929 during the time of labour unrest and widespread poverty, Kate is hired by Scotland Yard to undertake a sensitive investigation as a consultant. Being an investigator evidently means learning a lot about a wide variety of topics, including, in this case, rhubarb. I have actually attended a talk on rhubarb growing in Yorkshire, so I wasn’t surprised to read about the ‘Rhubarb Special’ train which delivers the huge quantities of rhubarb in season to London. I wasn’t expecting a dead body in among the rhubarb though, but then, anything can happen in Yorkshire.

Fortunately, Kate is well connected and instigates an invitation to a country house in the rural area suspected by the police to be the centre of a conspiracy. Many current crime authors feel that their plots must touch upon a quest for social justice, or at least reflect social realism and represent minority and disadvantaged groups, and Frances Brody too has managed to give her latest mystery a slant in this direction. She introduces a character with Aspergers Syndrome, although she rightly does not name the condition as it won’t be classified until the 1940s, and aptly describes the difficulties of the lives of coal miners and textile mill workers.

In addition to the corpse on the train, a woman shop keeper is murdered and the police seek to pin this murder on one of the workers. It’s up to Kate to make sure this innocent man is not convicted and to find a connection between these two murders and the abrupt closure of an orphanage. However, can Kate save some of the children from being shipped to Canada as part of that terrible programme of child emigration of orphans and cared-for children?  She and her faithful helpers, retired police constable Sykes and housekeeper Mrs Sugden, have a lot on their plate with this case. 

Considering the subject matter, it can hardly be classified as ‘cosy crime’, but it’s not as violent or gruesome as most of the police procedurals on the market these days. So, if you like either historic or cosy crime, I can recommend instigating an introduction to Kate Shackleton. If you enjoy this book, there are ten more in the series, all well researched and well written, with an easy flowing style and convincing dialogue.

The Body on the Train was published in 2019 by Piatkus in paperback for £8.99.