91福利社

When a goods train carrying valuable paintings arrives at its destination with one missing carriage, the owners turn to amateur sleuth, Thorpe Hazell.

How did the thieves remove it from a non-stopping service?

Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's most famous novel, first published in 1912.

Thorpe Hazell is a speciality detective using his locomotive expertise to solve audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing Britain鈥檚 Edwardian railways.

Adapted by Fiona Kelcher.

Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Thorpe is an eccentric and is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.

Producer: Fiona Kelcher

Made for 91福利社 Radio 7 and first broadcast in December 2008.