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christina_a_f's review against another edition
3.0
I started this collection at the worst time possible — right before I moved states, and by the time I’d done with moving I was unmotivated to read this. Glad I did end up picking it back up several months later, as I did enjoy the latter half of the collection, as most of the stories were entertaining. Some slogged at the beginning, hence why I put this down for a little, but it could’ve been the timing of what was going on in my life making me feel that way. An enjoyable collection of mysteries surrounding trains, though some rather loosely involving them. Which wasn’t actually that bad as it gave some variety to the stories.
eggcellent_reads's review
Not terrible by any means but I can't find the interest to continue.
Ratings of the stories I read:
1. The Man with the Watches = 4 stars
2. The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel = 3.5 stars
3. How He Cut His Stick = 3 stars
4. The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railroad = 2 stars
5. The Affair of the Corridor Express = 3 stars
Ratings of the stories I read:
1. The Man with the Watches = 4 stars
2. The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel = 3.5 stars
3. How He Cut His Stick = 3 stars
4. The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railroad = 2 stars
5. The Affair of the Corridor Express = 3 stars
nigeposh1960's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
tombomp's review
2.0
I found this quite disappointing - I'm not sure if maybe I've gone off mysteries a bit (it's a while since I've read them regularly) but I didn't find anything stand out and many of the mysteries were just not very interesting, combined with most having worse than pedestrian writing. And I love trains enough they'd usually elevate the mundane for me.
Mild detail spoilers outside spoiler tags below but I've spoiled the big stuff.
There were a few stories that managed to be both implausible AND uninteresting to me eg. Others are totally prosaic - the longest starts by showing you the murder happening then the detective solving it, but although there's a little flair put to the investigation of crushed glass it's really unnecessary as the
murderer is found in the only house within like a mile of the place where the death happened, and it's clear from the off even to the police who are presented as pretty stupid that the death wasn't caused by the train crushing the man as the murderer wanted them to think because there wasn't enough blood at the scene. One mystery is so obviously an issue of public health I can only assume there was a lack of understanding of the effects of gas at the time to make it even vaguely suspenseful. The Arthur Conan Doyle story that opens the collection has nothing to do with detection because it's written in the form of a confession from someone involved and again the mystery is of only mild interest. One story revolves around the unbelievable claim that someone can escape from a train travelling at a reasonable clip safely by hooking a walking stick on to telegraph poles (??? this one is as baffling to you as me, I genuinely might have misunderstood). One story doesn't really have a mystery and instead revolves around a ghost.
I think probably the most interesting *mystery* in this is "The Mysterious Death On The Underground Railway" which at least has an interesting murder method and is written to keep the suspense up, although it's still not particularly striking. I was though quite struck by "The Knight's Cross Signal Problem" - the mystery itself is quite bad mostly because even by the end I had no idea how the method was supposed to have actually worked, but the detective is blind AND it has an Indian character in it who gives an impassioned attack on British colonialism which is in no way rebutted by any other characters. Unfortunately he's given a racist characterisation even in the small space given to him - so certainly not a basis to recommend it on, but an interesting curiosity.
Mild detail spoilers outside spoiler tags below but I've spoiled the big stuff.
There were a few stories that managed to be both implausible AND uninteresting to me eg
Spoiler
The one where a guy just happened to see the guy he's indebted to in a train running alongside his at exactly the same speed, so he throws an egg through the window at him then when he comes to the window manages to shoot him with the revolver perfectly so as to kill him AND make the window shut AND so that somehow nobody notices the deceased fell back from the window when if he was killed by someone on his own train he'd most likely have been facing the other way etcSpoiler
murderer is found in the only house within like a mile of the place where the death happened, and it's clear from the off even to the police who are presented as pretty stupid that the death wasn't caused by the train crushing the man as the murderer wanted them to think because there wasn't enough blood at the scene
I think probably the most interesting *mystery* in this is "The Mysterious Death On The Underground Railway" which at least has an interesting murder method and is written to keep the suspense up, although it's still not particularly striking. I was though quite struck by "The Knight's Cross Signal Problem" - the mystery itself is quite bad mostly because even by the end I had no idea how the method was supposed to have actually worked, but the detective is blind AND it has an Indian character in it who gives an impassioned attack on British colonialism which is in no way rebutted by any other characters. Unfortunately he's given a racist characterisation even in the small space given to him -
Spoiler
he's the murderer and confesses on the basis of a fortune teller's comment while having an unhealthy obsession with white womenmarmalade72's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
ljwrites85's review
3.0
So I treated myself to Blood On The Tracks just after Christmas because a) I love a short story, especially mystery ones, and b) I enjoy a bit of classic crime and it's been awhile since I picked one up. Plus, I kind of miss travelling on trains even though I'm not the biggest fan of them in general.
Blood On The Tracks was a good mix of stories from well-known authors to some authors whose works had gone out of print years ago. It also had a good mix of styles, from ones with a little of the supernatural, to ones you knew up front who the killer was to just good old-fashioned locked room mysteries.
Like with most collections, there are stronger ones than others. Unfortunately for me, I felt that the not so great stories outweighed the good ones in this collection.
Still, I really enjoyed discovering new authors and reading stories which I have never read before from the ones I knew.
Blood On The Tracks was a good mix of stories from well-known authors to some authors whose works had gone out of print years ago. It also had a good mix of styles, from ones with a little of the supernatural, to ones you knew up front who the killer was to just good old-fashioned locked room mysteries.
Like with most collections, there are stronger ones than others. Unfortunately for me, I felt that the not so great stories outweighed the good ones in this collection.
Still, I really enjoyed discovering new authors and reading stories which I have never read before from the ones I knew.
stagasaurus's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this one. I love these short story collections for finding authors I want to read more from. I've dog earrred a few pages to research. Railway Mysteries is a good idea for a collection, and soothed my annoyance that despite really liking Christie, I've never enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express.
rouge_red's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think a short story format necessarily worked for these mysteries because I think page count helps to build up the mystery in order to have a satisfying resolution. That being said, these stories were fairly entertaining. My favorite was definitely the nearly 50 page one called "The Case of Oscar Brodski" by R. Austin Freeman, the first example of the "inverted" detective story. My least favorite was definitely "The Knight's Cross Signal Problem" by Ernest Bramah. It had an interesting conceit in that our detective was blind, but the rest of the tale of so problematic, involving an Indian man plotting acts of violence (in this story causing a train crash with casualties) in England as justification for his country being colonized. Like why this story? And why have it be part of this collection from 2018? Fortunately, though many of these short stories are over 100 years old, they don't all have really dated and problematic things in them.