From AudioFile
One of the finest of contemporary pop novelists here presents a suspenseful and fascinating account of a true-life Victorian caper, far richer and more absorbing than the excellent film version of 1979. Simon Prebble plays less for drama than for clarity and euphony. His measured tones give us only a hint of character and ignore the author's expert manipulation of tension. Yet there is not a false or ugly note anywhere. Indeed, through some subtle actor's magic, he simultaneously puts himself into the background and the story into the foreground. Thus, though sounding unprepossessing and remote, he grips the listener and holds him fascinated until the last word of the last chapter. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Review
"A nineteenth-century version of The Sting...Crichton fascinates us."-- The New, York Times Book Review
Book Description
Lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side in Victorian London -- and Edward Pierce easily navigates both worlds. Rich, handsome, and ingenious, he charms the city's most prominent citizens even as he plots the crime of his century -- the daring theft of a fortune in gold.
But even Pierce could not predict the consequences of an extraordinary robbery that targets the pride of England's industrial era: the mighty steam locomotive. Based on remarkable fact, and alive with the gripping suspense, surprise, and authenticity that are his trademark, Michael Crichton's classic adventure is a breathtaking thrill-ride that races along tracks of steel at breakneck speed.
Great Train Robbery FROM THE PUBLISHER
"A nineteenth-century version of THE STING...Crichton fascinates us."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
In teeming Victorian London, where lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side, Edward Pierce charms the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of the century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the daring theft of a fortune in gold? Who could predict the consequences of making the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England's industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, as lively as legend, and studded with all the suspense and style of a modern fiction master, here is a classic caper novel set a decade before the age of dynamiteyet nonetheless explosive....