Death Train to Boston

August 30, 1999
This swift and upbeat story features Fremont Jones, scion of a distinguished Boston family, and Michael Kossoff, a Russian nobleman and spy for the czar, who, in the fifth in this series (after Emperor Norton's Ghost), are continuing not only as passionate (but discreet) lovers but also as partners in their own San Francisco-based PI agency. Jones and Kossoff, traveling incognito on a case for the Southern and Union Pacific Railroad in the fall of 1908, are separated after a deliberately caused train wreck in Utah's Wasatch mountains. Michael, suffering a broken collarbone, searches for Fremont in vain: she has been abducted from the site by Melancthon Pratt, a fanatical Mormon who has five wives and is determined to make the lustrous Fremont his sixth. Secluded in a stark room, incapacitated by two broken legs, the shrewd and imaginative young woman beguiles the other wives and keeps the single-minded Pratt at bay. While Michael uses his considerable skills--a background in espionage enhanced by a sixth sense--to search for Fremont, he runs into malevolent figures from his past who have murder on their minds. The basic mystery--who is sabotaging the railroad and why--doesn't seem to matter, as the ongoing adventures of the sharply defined and appealing cast of characters carry the lively story.