Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Great Train Robbery

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: Michael Crichton: Knopf: Fiction: 266 pgs

While at a dinner party Edward Pierce over hears a banker describe how their money transfers to the Crimean War could not be stolen because of the high security of their safes involving four separate keys. For Pierce, that was just announcing a challenge to rob a moving train of 12,000 pounds in gold.

A slow start with lots of historical detail, but the masterminding of the plan reminds me of The Sting and in the end a good read. The only problem I had was that Crichton would interrupt the story and go into Victorian history and lose his momentum that he just built up. I recommend it more for historical fans than adventure readers.

KK

1 comment:

BHG said...

I really enjoyed this. I agree that the momentum got broken up by the historical detail, but I'm still glad I read it, and it was fascinating.