On the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival – even before they departed for France, a member of Jim's unit had been found dead.

During the stand-off that follows, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells rain down. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins to point towards Jim himself . . . 'The real achievement of

The Somme Stations is the bravura picture the reader is given of men in war – a war receding in time as the last participants die, but which Martin subtly allows to stand in for all conflicts.' Barry Forshaw,

Independent Praise for the Jim Stringer series:

'Breathe in the heady mixture of smoke, oil and steam – and the odd spot of real ale – and feel the crunch of cinders beneath your feet… you're in historic railway territory again.'

Manchester Evening News

'Finely honed crime novels with plotting as precise as a Swiss watch.'

Daily Express

'This series is, er, really building up a head of steam.'

Observer Readers love Jim Stringer, railway detective:

'It's hard to envisage anyone not warming to Jim Stringer.'

Independent

'An unlikely sleuth – ingenuous, naive and a little anxious – but an endearing narrator, a solid bloke who'd be good company over a pint of stout down the pub.'

Telegraph

'The best sleuth that 200 years of the railways have ever produced.'

Independent on Sunday