Overview
The Flying Scotsman:
A luxury train and the fastest way to travel between London and Edinburgh, has become the secret escape route for a European Prince who has narrowly escaped assassination at a royal wedding--an assassination intended to prevent the finalization of a treaty vital to British interests in Europe.
Posing as a journalist, Mycroft Holmes and Paterson Guthrie, Holmes's assistant in his adventures, board the train to protect the prince during what should have been a quick, safe trip to Scotland. Their journey is interrupted almost immediately by another try at murder.
Guthrie spots some familiar faces among his fellow passengers. He and Mycroft have tangled with Scottish laird Sir Cameron Macmillan before. Is he behind the attempted assassinations? Then there's the beautiful and dangerous Pauline Gatspy. She's helped Mycroft and Guthrie in the past, but that's no guarantee that she's on their side--England's side--this time.
The Flying Scotsman combines the established thrills and chills of the Mycroft Holmes series with the history and high society life of Scotland's version of the Orient Expresss.
FROM THE PERSONAL JOURNAL OF PHILIP TYERS:
Word has come from the Admiralty that no attempt was made on the other double; in fact, there is some doubt among the highly placed officers that the ruse was successful, and that there was no attempt made because it was known the man was not HHPO. This could mean that the assassin might have learned of the change in plans that put HHPO aboard the Flying Scotsman, which is a development that can only be viewed with alarm.
Between reading the lines of Mosca and fretting about MH, Sutton has voiced concern for something that has me even more dismayed--that there may be two assassins working in concert, with the same intention as our use of doubles: to throw us off the scent of the primary assassin and his target. Sutton is afraid that the assassin may be aboard the Flying Scotsman with MH, G, and HHPO, an idea I can only view with utmost horror.
Note:
This use of the character of Mycroft Holmes is done with the kind permission of Dame Jean Conan Doyle.
The Flying Scotsman of the North Eastern line had a long and illustrious career. Although I have been at pains not to deviate too significantly from its history, even though the story is set in 1896, just after the Railway Race to the North that occurred in 1895, I have used the route taken by the train since 1892, although changes in the route were made before and since then. Changes in the configuration of the train were rare except during the actual speed runs, but the Directors did consent to them more than ten times by 1890, and so I have extended their gracious allowance to the fictional events of this story.
