Murder on the Night Sleeper

A railway train is an ideal setting for a murder mystery, and of all the types of train the overnight sleeper train is the best. The combination of a closed environment on the move, a private sleeper group compartment, strangers thrown together, and a long journey through the hours of darkness to far-flung destinations offers the ideal opportunity for the unravelling of a story of suspense, romance, and mystery. The enduring popularity of sleeper trains as the setting for fictional murder and mayhem is explored here, starting with Continental sleeper trains which have featured in the work of Arthur Griffiths, Agatha Christie, and Ian Fleming. Then it is the turn of Britain's long-distance sleeper trains, especially those between England and Scotland, which have inspired authors such as Freeman Wills Crofts, Dorothy Sayers, and Josephine Tey. Most recently the BBC TV thriller Nightsleeper, set on the Glasgow to London sleeper, demonstrated that the genre is still very much alive.David Meara details the routes taken, the trains themselves and the individual plots, all copiously illustrated with contemporary archive material, book covers and film images. As the travel writer Paul Theroux wrote, ‘Anything is possible on a train…’.