Description

1857.  As the community of Exeter celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, one notable person is missing from the festivities.  It is Joel Heygate, the affable, highly-respected stationmaster at Exeter St David’s railway station.   Only when the bonfire finally dies down, the charred remains of his body are found.  Who would possibly want to murder a man so universally liked?

It’s the question Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Lemming ask when they arrive in Exeter at the request of the South Devon Railway.  Yet, as they investigate the stationmaster’s life, they realise he is not as popular as they first believed. With a scorned jilted lover, a resentful colleague and a violent elder brother among the many suspects, it is only when Heygate’s diary turns up unexpectedly that the truth becomes clear and a fourth suspect emerges.

As Colbeck closes in on the killer, he finds himself in mortal danger – can justice prevail? Or will his beloved Madeleine be robbed of a husband on the very eve of their marriage? The detectives must use all their skill and wit to solve the case.