'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