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A review by mundinova
The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
3.0
This book blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction, but in a good way.
After reading The Boys in the Boat, I got use to a specific style of non-fiction writing: descriptive and prose-like. The Great Train Robbery reminded me of that style ... but it's labeled fiction.
You'll learn a lot about Victorian London. What you learn will be more detailed and reliable than any steampunk or historical fiction you normally read set in the same time period. So in that way, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves non-fiction.
But it's also a great tale. A daring daytime robbery which reminds us why we all secretly want the villain to win. We want to believe that if we ever turned evil we'd be smart enough to get away. And they did! They got away, but not before telling the world (in court!) exactly how they did it. Genius.
After reading The Boys in the Boat, I got use to a specific style of non-fiction writing: descriptive and prose-like. The Great Train Robbery reminded me of that style ... but it's labeled fiction.
You'll learn a lot about Victorian London. What you learn will be more detailed and reliable than any steampunk or historical fiction you normally read set in the same time period. So in that way, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves non-fiction.
But it's also a great tale. A daring daytime robbery which reminds us why we all secretly want the villain to win. We want to believe that if we ever turned evil we'd be smart enough to get away. And they did! They got away, but not before telling the world (in court!) exactly how they did it. Genius.