The great train robbery

300 pages

English language

Published Dec. 30, 1975 by Bantam Book.

ISBN:: 978-0-553-02424-1
OCLC Number:: 421852589

(1 review)

"England, 1855. The days of Queen Victoria. Once a month a train roars toward the channel laden with a fantastic shipment of gold. The train is guarded. The two safes are invulnerable...Yet Edward Pierce, a handsome, redbearded rogue, will have his way. In his plan he will choose one companion--a beautiful and dangerous woman. He will commit one of the most shocking crimes of the century."

33 editions

Thom reviewed The great train robbery by Michael Crichton

Review of 'The great train robbery' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This 1975 best seller is an excellent historical novel of a most famous heist, drawn from court transcripts. The author gives us not just the heist but also describes London (and her relations) in 1855, peppered with a dose of Victorian criminal slang.

The majority of chapters are the planning and preparation, many months of work. The heist itself and aftermath are quickly told, but the plot is not without twists for those who don't know the details. I greatly enjoyed this trip through Victorian London.

After reading the wikipedia article, I see that Crichton's account was, in their words, "highly fictionalized". I also somehow missed that this book had been turned into a movie, and will add it to my ever growing list of films to see.