BLACKBURN, John - Dead Man's Handle - (1978 First Edition Hardcover in Jacket)

Book and wrapper still very good - 182 pg.   >>> On his first job driving the Channel Belle train from London to Lythborne, Billy Smith is rather nervous. Exactly three years ago to the day, his father Peter Smith was driving the same route when the train suffered an unexplained crash that killed 29 people. Peter, who was crippled in the accident, claims that someone dropped a heavy stone off the Cemetery Bridge, shattering the windshield and causing him to lose control on the Crematorium Bend. At the same bend, Billy is extremely vigilant, and slams on the brakes at the Bridge. Though many are injured, Billy claims he saved lives, and that he saw someone or something on the overpass, ready to do to him what it had done to his father. Colonel Archibald Vayne of British Rail Security is doubtful at first, but when a corpse is found on the path to the bridge, it appears the story is confirmed. Vayne feels uneasy about the tidiness of the evidence, however, and though the official case is closed, he probes deeper, interrogating the Smith family father, mother, son Billy and daughter Betty. He soon realizes that there is a much more deliberate and sinister force at work, one that has a long-standing grudge against the Smiths. Can he uncover the mystery before history repeats itself and another horrible tragedy occurs on the rails?