Beau Blackstone

Edmund Blackstone, Bow Street Runner, poured ale over his clothes, and rubbed his fingernails against the stone wall until they were cracked and jagged. Then he dishevelled his hair, rubbing a little grease into it. The whole process offended him but he persevered, massaging soil into his hands until they had a dirty polish about them, yet still they didn't have the saddle-hard palms which you got wielding a shovel for twelve hours or more every day. For that was what he would have to do - Edmund Blackstone, navigator or navvy.

'If you're on the run,' Molly said, 'take my advice, go back to the canals. There's only a couple of months' work left on this bloody railway. And you'll have to put up with Petro.'

'Who's Petro?' Blackstone asked. Although he knew.

'Calls himself king of the navvies. Everyone's scared of him, even the contractors. Don't cross him.'

But how else, Blackstone wondered, was he to discover who was behind the theft of the navvies' wages? Who stood to gain if the world's pioneer public steam locomotive railway, the Stockton and Darlington, failed to open? In chasing the answers Blackstone unearths a plot to pull the world's first Great Train Robbery.

Beau Blackstone is the third Blackstone novel.

Reviews:

"Hot stuff - this Bond from the 19th century."

Daily Express

"A tale of murder, highway holdup, riotous goings on - and a plot to carry out the first-ever Great Train Robbery… There's enough excitement to raise a really good head of steam!"

Southern Evening Echo

"A most unusual story, packed with exciting incident and peopled with plausible characters. You really should introduce yourself to this new hero, forerunner to all the fictional detectives that have ever entertained us."

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

"An increasingly fascinating saga, set against the completion and the opening of the world's first public railway between Stockton and Darlington. The book contains a strong element of mystery, both ingenious and tantalising."

Cambridge Books Supplement

"Blackstone, a combination of Regency dandy and tough private eye, takes precedence."

The Northern Echo

"Plenty of action and excitement, and good period background."

Woman's Journal

"An exciting tale… the author has caught the atmosphere of the era. This certainly is a first-class adventure."

Blaydon Guide

"A thriller every inch of the way."

Heywood Advertiser

"An exciting story set against the authentic background of the period."

Worcester Evening News

"Edmund Blackstone is the name. It has a good virile ring about it. Blackstone is fast on the draw with his flintlock and wields a nifty baton with the official crown on it, but when he wants to command the respect of a hostile crowd he'll slug it out with an adversary using his bare knuckles. Curiously in the pantheon of national heroes, from Robin Hood to today's detectives and secret agents, nobody had written about Bow Street Runners till author Richard Falkirk invented Blackstone and turned him into a world bestseller."

Daily Express

"This Bow Street Runner who is rapidly becoming one of today's most popular fictional characters. Mr Falkirk, besides spinning a good tale, also gives us an intimate insight into life in the early 19th century."

Evening Post

"This, Blackstone's third adventure, should satisfy everyone."

Police Review

“Vested interests in the canal industry threatened the new railway engines. George Stephenson brings in the Bow Street Runners and therefore Blackstone to find the conspirators and stop the plots against him, and the railway between Stockton and Darlington. An enjoyable thriller/mystery with the interesting character of Blackstone.”

Susan Meikle (Reviewer)

“The Blackstone novels (and this is the third of six in the series) are just tremendous. What impresses me most about this series is how the history is seamlessly blended into the story.”

Andrew Eichner (Reviewer)