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?

Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.

Eccentric Thorpe Hazell 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.

English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.

Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008. Show less