Book summary

In Victorian London, Edward Pierce orchestrates the crime of the century, the famous train robbery of 1855, when train travel was scarcely a quarter of a century old. The novel is told in five parts: Preparations, The Keys, Delays and Difficulties, The Great Train Robbery, and Arrest and Trial, and covers the several years it took to plan and execute the crime. Crichton directed the 1979 version of the film that starred Sean Connery.

Media reviews

"A nineteenth-century version of 'The Sting'...A nice Victorian flavor...Crichton makes it all work because he has such a nice eye for 'the illuminating detail'."