Great. ( )

An enjoyable read, this reminded me of early Hitchcock films with stock characters and unlikely plot twists. Recommend for fans of early mystery novels. ( )

When Allan Kragh impulsively follows a beautiful grey-eyed woman onto a train, he doesn’t expect to be sharing a compartment with a notorious master criminal – or to be arrested in his place. Still, he doesn’t bear a grudge, until he realises that his hotel in London is hosting not only the same fellow-travellers, but the Maharajah of Nasirabad and his fabled jewel collection…

Beware of Railway-Journeys will take you from a Paris-bound railway car to a glittering London hotel, in the company of an unassuming hero with a knack for observation. This new edition features an introduction by the author of the Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction, Mitzi M. Brunsdale.

Frank Heller was the pseudonym of Gunnar Serner, who was the first internationally famous Swedish crime writer. The son of a clergyman, to avoid arrest after a financial fraud he left Sweden for the continent. After losing the swindled money in a casino in Monte Carlo, he tried his hand at writing novels with immediate success, and produced forty-three novels, short stories and travelogues before his death in 1947.

I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for an honest review.

I've read mixed reviews, but have to say I enjoyed this book. I agree with the reader who termed it a "romp," in the nature of an Agatha Christie or other mystery writer from times gone by. Is it a mystery story that would be written now? No. For a number of reasons (out of date characterizations, among other issues). But it was fun and twisty and sufficiently weird to hold my interest. ( )

Fun, if sometimes meandering, story of a master thief and the circumstances that keep preventing him from pulling off a jewel heist in London. The story of the author himself was fascinating to learn about, and you can see why his first novel would involve a Swede on the run and his encounters with Americans abroad, London hospitality employees, and Muslim royalty, with all these character types having fun poked at them at some point. The plot contains all the genre elements of a classic 1920s European caper--disguises, chloroform, decadent private clubs, and endless hotel dining. An enjoyable romp. ( )