Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton

The 5 pm train from Cannon Street ran to Stourford which it reached at 6.07. It reached Blackdown Station at 5.29. Just past Blackdown, it entered a tunnel which was two and a half miles long. This evening was unusual in that when the train reached the middle of the tunnel, it started to slow down because the engineer saw a red light, but then the engineer saw the light turn green, and he sped up again, and the train proceeded on its way.

William Turner, the guard on the train, who wondered about the slowdown started walking down the corridor of the train toward the engine. On his way, he noticed that the gentleman in the last compartment  of the first class carriage seemed to be asleep. As the train approached Stourford, Turner walked back down the corridor, noticed that the gentleman was still sleeping, and opened the compartment door to wake him. To his amazement, he found the this man was dead. He had been shot with a gun which now lay on the compartment floor.

Inspector Arnold of the CID came to Stourford to investigate the death of the death of Sir Wilfred Saxonby on the train. Sir Wilfred was semiretired from his business, but he usually went to the office once or twice a week to oversee the business of which he was chairman. On this, his last trip, he had requested of the guard that he have a compartment to himself, and the guard had locked the door to the corridor. The door on the other side of the compartment which led to the tracks was unlocked. Arnold found that the gun had the initials WS on it, but he could not find the permit which Sir Wilfred would have needed to purchase the gun. Also he could not find the ticket which Sir Wilfred used to board the train. The obvious verdict in this case was suicide, but Inspector Arnold was not satisfied with this; something about this did not seem right.

Inspector Arnold enlisted the assistance of his friend Desmond Merrion who was an amateur criminologist. Their investigation began when together, they walked the length of the tunnel to look for a possible light which the engineer might have seen. They continued their investigations until they had unraveled a complicated method of committing a murder for an equally complicated reason.

The main part of this book deals with finding how the murder was done, and who did it. Secondary to this, is the determination of why the murder is committed. There is little development of character, or of setting. It will appeal to the reader who is fascinated with detail and with complex methods of carrying out a murder. If the reader wants more from a mystery, this is not the book for them.

This book was published in 1936. The author is Miles Burton which is one of the pseudonyms used by Cecil John Street. Other pen names he used were John Rhode and Cecil Wayne. He was a founding member of the Detection Club. He was a friend of Dorothy L. Sayers, Lucy Malleson, and John Dickson Carr. This information has been taken from the introduction to this book by Martin Edwards.