Crimes in the train

I took this picture in the National Railway Museum of York and since then I have been wanting to write this post. It is similar to many blog posts I have written through the years, because it is one of my obsessions. Incidentally, the NRM is having a Mystery on the Rails season. I have never read Carola Dunn's novel or indeed any of her books, but I read plenty of crime novels set in a train. Crime fiction and train travels go hand in hand together: a setting that is both closed and in motion, which can bring out a nice feeling of claustrophobia and in the meantime dynamism and suspense, not to forget drama. Unfortunately, as I mentioned here, it is too often associated with cosy whodunits. I find stories that build on suspense and have genuine characters, not stereotypes far more satisfying. There are plenty of them set in parts or exclusively on the railway. Which I try to find and read... When I travel by train.