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The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crighton
It seems that Crighton has based this one on fact... well sort of anyway. The man was called Pierce, there was gold and it turned out it was a long time in the planning and they duplicated the keys. Credit to Crighton he did keep some of the names if the main players the same. Apart from that he seems to have taken a little detour from Truth Central. When you look up some of the facts around the actual, historic Great Train Robbery you find out how much Crighton did invent in his story but that does not say that I minded. It was quite an enjoyable story that (as usual with Crighton) moves along at a nice little pace. I am sure he invented most of the dialogue and probably a fair bit of the actions taken by the various players in this robbery game as well but hey.... It's all in good fun.
The story starts when we meet our Mr Pierce who seems like a proper gentleman but is far from it. He is hell bent on pulling off one of the greatest robberies in history. For this audacious plan to succeed he is willing to lie, bribe, cheat and scheme his way into the best and brightest families in Victorian London. With the help of some dodgy sidekicks he manages to get hold of the keys of the safes transporting the money. He then devises and ingenious plan which almost goes wrong at the final stage... several times (just to keep us on tenterhooks).
One of the bits I like most about this book is that whole plotting of the robbery. Pierce and his accomplish Agar take their time in organising themselves. They stake out the station and go about carefully making their plans. For a long time it is only the two of them who know develop their plan. Later on they need the help of a man with very special talent. Willy is the guy they need to crawl through small spaces and there is only one little problem. Willy got himself nicked and is spending some time in Newgate Prison benefiting from her Majesty's excellent food and lodging facilities. This brings us to one of my favourite bits in the book, where Clean Willy escapes from prison against all odds. It is an incredible few pages where he scales walls, gets himself cut all over the place and finally moves across the rooftops to the hotel room where is met by Pierce and the others and then nursed back to health.
Another good bit is the part when we get to the day of the actual robbery. Pierce has worked it all out. His able assistant is waiting at the drop ready to catch the bag that will be thrown from the train and Pierce' s accomplice is boxed up and suitably smelly. The idea is to get the accomplice, Agar on board in a coffin and the way they go about this is both funny and clever. But... things do not all go quite to plan. Pierce happens meets an old friend on the platform and has to do some ducking and diving and quick thinking to ensure that he is able to carry out his part of the plan. He also has to rely on the help of his very able but very mysterious female assistant to help him out of the small hole he is in. In the end the whole thing is pulled off rather cleverly and they all go their separate ways. This could have been it but as there is no honour among thieves Agar gets caught and then sells them down the river. The plotters are rounded up and brought to justice. Well.. almost all of the plotters. Pierce's personal assistant and the mystery woman remain at large. They are the ones that help Pierce escape justice in the end. They ride of into the sunset, probably to swan off to some faraway destination and spend their ill gotten gains. Things do not go so well for the others involved in the plot as they get sent down. Ah well, I guess someone had to go to jail and Pierce is far to likable a rogue to be sent down. Pierce in court is a joy to read and the way he toys with the police is also very good! He manages to outmaneuver them on several occasions and definitely has the last laugh in the end.
One more thing I liked about the book was that it also gives you a bit of the history of the Victorian age. You get an idea of how society worked, who moved in what circles, how people interacted, what little vices they had and what life was like in London for both the well off and the not so well off. This makes it all a bit more "robust" so to say. It gives us a good picture of what sort of world these people live in and what the customs and conventions were in those days.
I found the whole story quite enjoyable and it scooted along at a good pace. Pierce is a good, fun central character to build the story around and the other accomplice are suitable roguish and entertaining in their own way. Agar is a good sidekick and he manages to claim a good part of the conversation and action in the book. The mystery lady is a bit of a dark horse and you can tell she has only been added to add a little more mystery to Pierce and his convoluted social life. It's a fun story and there are some really funny bits in it. There are also the tense bits of the "will they pull it off or not" but I kind of guessed it would not have been called the Great Train Robbery if they had failed so that tension is kind of not that big.
In short, perfectly likable, fun characters and loosely based on fact as well.
Best line of the book is Pierce's response when he is asked why he took the money, to which he replied: "I wanted the money".
Author: Michael Crighton
329 pages
Avon Books
ISBN# 0-06-050230-4
Books to be read: 141
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