Description

In 1936, a horrified porter finds three brutally bashed bodies, including the conductor’s, in a blood-soaked mail train carriage just arrived at Brisbane Central Station. The gruesome find sparks a desperate police chase through three Australian states to catch the killer. The killer is only one step ahead of the police dragnet as he flees south. Many obstacles hinder his escape. His bungling becomes the greatest obstacle of all.

As the world grapples with the Great Depression, the Australian Mail Train murders are one of the most reported in the interwar years. The community are horrified by the crime and demand the police capture and convict the killer swiftly. When police finally capture the killer, and he faces a judge and jury, the community is divided about his punishment. Many want him sent to the gallows.

What pushed and pulled the killer into a life of crime? Who or what is to blame for his actions? Eighty years after the killer’s death, the author discovers he is her cousin, once removed. The ghosts in her genes and the inherited shame compelled her to write the story of the Mail Train killer.

230 pages. By Kay Duke.