A novel that reads partly like a history book. Reading it, you’ll enjoy the suspense and intrigue while also learning something. Informative and fun!

I find Crichton’s books a reliable mixture of hit-and-miss. Some are spectacular, others are barely readable. I don’t find this latter fault with ROBBERY, but the story, based on a real train heist in Victorian England, could not find its rhythm. Crichton seemed unable to decide throughout whether he intended to write a novel or a nonfiction account. The back and forth between historical explanation and invented character conversation was more off-putting than helpful. I would have preferred that he dive wholeheartedly into one version or the other. And in trying to write a pseudo-novel, Crichton ended up simply stating facts one after another, with no mystery, no thrills, woven in to keep me reading. I finished the book simply because it was interesting enough, but this is not something I’d recommend to others. I’m sure the actual crime was fascinating. This lukewarm accounting of it is not.

This one was a a really great and exciting read. I had picked it out from my library without knowing how good it really is. Initially I even thought if the book is fiction or true crime.

Reviewing this book is a bit of a challenge as I don't want to include any spoilers and mar the joy of reading this novel.

As the name suggests, the novel is about a daring train robbery and it was carried out during the Victorian era in London. At that time, the railways were seen as the symbol of progress and technological advancement.

What I really liked about the book was the atmosphere and setting. The author has used the Victorian period to his great advantage. Instead of just focussing on the crime, Crichton has portrayed the period in such a fascinating and often humorous way that it increased the appeal of the story. The story is replete with anecdotes of that era and the narrative encompasses the various aspects of the Victorian society -- the story of the haves and have nots, the idiosyncracies, the underworld and categories of criminals, the stark contrast of wealth & poverty, the hypocrisies of the gentleman, popularity of illegal sports such as boxing and dog sports, the nascent police system and so on. Important historical events such as the Crimean War, the Great Revolt of 1857 (which historians of the West call the Sepoy Mutiny) are also present in the story.

The mastermind, Edward Pierce ( if that is his real name) is the quintessential evil genius. He has the bearing, manners and charm of a gentleman but he is the master manipulator - the way he would enter the lives of unwitting pawns, how ruthlessly he used people, his meticulous planning, his command over accents of different classes, the way he would misdirect the Scotland Yard, the various contingency plans -everything is so exciting. The pains and dangers of carrying out the various stages of the heist and the actual commission of the crime are excellent. Pierce's other accomplices are no less fascinating.The ending was excellent also.

The only flaw with the novel might be that the victims and the Scotland Yard people were shown to be too naive and trusting.

Though Crichton is famous for his science fiction novels, his works in other genres are equally good. I would recommend this book to annyone who likes a good heist novel and to those who like crime stories set in the Victorian era.

This is one of my MC collection that I am going to have to re-read. I liked this book when I first read it and it is worth 4-5 stars. Its different from MC's other sci-fi works however it is the same in that it shows the great lengths of his research capabilities. The era and setting of thee London period, the industrial resolution, the people, atmosphere, everything. Its like stepping into a time machine.

Placing this on my re-read list asap.

Re-Read 11/14/24. awesome research and knowledge into the world, class structure, economics, and culture of Victorian London England. But Not very exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed how Pierce and his team ( Agar, Miriam etc etc) jumped through various hoops, retrieved the 4 keys, stole the money from the safes, staked out the train employees and the bank employees and all of the rest "Oceans 11" part of the heist. I even enjoyed the typical Michael Crichton research and fact and knowledge that went into it. But, with all that said, it just wasn't as exciting as I remembered it being. I was slightly bored.

Going from original 4 stars to 3 stars.

In Victorian London, can Edward Pierce and his cronies pull off a train heist and get away with a fortune in gold bullion?

Like quite a few of my reads over the years, this book appeared on my radar courtesy of Kemper. We were discussing the Breaking Bad episode Dead Freight and he asked if I'd ever read The Great Train Robbery. I said I hadn't and promptly forgot about it for a couple years until I ran across the Great Train Robbery in the local used bookstore.

The Great Train Robbery is a gripping heist novel set in the 1850's. Crichton doesn't skimp on the Victoriana, either. The social climate and attitudes of the time are in full force, as is Victorian criminal slang. Critchton throws the reader into the deep end with his talk of bone lays, twirls, drums, and gammons.

As with most capers, the joy is in the planning and watching Pierce deal with getting key impressions, ferreting out key impressions, and dealing with setbacks along the way. Pierce proved to be quite a cracksman and would make Richard Stark's Parker smile with admiration, if such a thing were possible.

The way Crichton tells the story is masterful, alternating the story as it occurred with newspaper clippings from after the caper went off and the subsequent trial. It was excellent way to misdirect readers such as me. I thought I had things pegged pretty early on but Crichton surprised me at the end.

If I had to justify not giving this a five, I would mention that the characters were a bit weak, Pierce included. However, the story is entitled The Great Train Robbery, not An Examination of the Psyche of a Train Robber so some slack must be cut.

Four stars. Now I want to track down the movie version starring Donald Sutherland and Sean Connery.

This book is loosely based on "The Great Gold Robbery of 1885". I found it "meh" and expected more from Crichton. He took a lot liberty with the facts, something that irks me tremendously if not not done right.

In 1855, after a year of planning, a gentleman criminal set out to rob a transfer of gold from England to France. The book tells more about life in the Victorian Era than it does about the robbery and trial, another irksome matter for me.

It is always a plus when I finish a book that is not really calling to me. Such was this book, so it was not all bad.

I did not enjoy this tale as much as I had hoped. It was clear the author had done his research on the time period and criminals of the time, but it seemed as if he couldn't decide how best to tell the story. It was fictionalized true crime and somehow did not really fall into the category of well-written either. It was too dry and fact-filled for a novel, but the fictionalized conversations were too frequent to be a true crime book. I can understand why Crichton did not write many of these.

“It is difficult, after the passage of more than a century, to understand the extent to which the train robbery of 1855 shocked the sensibilities of Victorian England. At first glance, the crime hardly seems”

I’m trying to read more Michael Crichton - have a lot of his stuff but haven’t actually read much of him yet. This was certainly a different plot type than some of his later works that I have read, like Sphere and Jurassic Park.

I’m a fan of Crichton’s writing style in the books I’ve read, but this was one of his earlier works and sometimes I found the way the writing style was crafted to be a chore or downright bore, but the book was saved by the sneaked in twists and turns. This isn’t to say it’s poorly written, however, just that there was some dryness here and there and a slow-rolling pace.

This was detailed and elaborate, and the scenes are drawn through almost excruciatingly slow. Some of those scenes were very interesting, and the ending with how the villains goes out with a bang of glory as impressive as his planning and execution of the actual crime makes any slow spots worth enduring.

It’s one of those tales where little happens to the good guys but most of the criminals get happiness of sorts. Sometimes we need these stories to shake things up a bit.

The speaking style was hard for me to get used to, and I still don’t get some of the slang, but the authenticity rang true and the characters were memorable enough. Eventually I need to track down the movie and see if it’s the same story-line.

Novela de ladrones que dan un gran golpe, muy al estilo Lupin o La Casa de Papel, con un protagonista igualmente hábil e hiper-inteligente que parece tenerlo todo previsto y que siempre escapa de cualquier situación con elegancia y poniendo en marcha un plan inesperado y creativo. Me esperaba un poco más de trama en el interior del tren, pero esta solo tiene lugar en los últimos capítulos. Casi toda la novela consiste en encontrar cuatro llaves que les darán acceso a la gran caja fuerte que pretenden saquear durante un futuro viaje. De todas formas, toda la descripción del Londres victoriano es brutal, y Crichton hace pequeños paréntesis muy interesantes para explicar cómo funcionaban ciertas cosas en esa época y así ponernos en contexto antes de continuar con la trama (las peleas ilegales de perros, la puntualidad en el entorno laboral, el nacimiento de los cuerpos policiales, la peligrosidad de los barrios chungos, la situación de las mujeres solteras...). En general es una buena novela de un género que no es muy prolífico en la literatura como es el de los grandes robos.

Thoroughly thrilling! I loved it!

I like that the story is told in past tense, as a recollection of the robbery from 1855. It worked so well in creating awe and underlining the stunning nature of the whole story as it warranted.

It was so fascinating to read all the preparation that went into pulling off what was then termed the crime of the century in England. This was such a good historical crime thriller, it's amazing that this has actually happened. The perpetrators of the robbery planned and prepared a whole year before they were to pull it off. Jesus! Talk about dedication.

This was so fucking good, from start to finish. I would love to read more books like this - noir thriller, recollection of real events, would be great if it was about a heist, please recommend me some if you have read any good ones.

I would love to see the movie version of this, which Crichton also wrote and directed. Sean Connery as Edward Pierce, the mastermind behind the robbery that threw Victorian England for a loop. He really was a smart guy. It's obvious Crichton did his research about the period (apparently he became obsessed with the Victorian criminal underworld). The book is chock full of criminal slang. You catch the meaning eventually, and it certainly lends an atmosphere.

This was a bit hard to get into at first, but once I glommed onto the style, it was a really good time. I was expecting much more of a straight adventure story, and while this *is* a fictionalized account of the great train robbery of 1855 (I double checked!), it reads more in the style of non-fiction account than a novel. The focus is on the logistics, on the why and what and where of the happenings, rather than character. It's also told in an impersonal third person narrative, much like a non-fiction book, never letting us into the character's heads. This has the effect of making them seem more like subjects to be marveled or entertained by, rather than empathetic characters. I'm sure this was done very much on purpose. There's also a bit of a historical perspective that I really enjoyed. It's a Victorian story told from a modern perspective (well, modern at the time; 1975 is now forty-five years ago!)

The book is split into four sections: The planning of the robbery, the initial steps (getting the keys!), the actual robbery itself, and then the eventual trial. This is not a spoiler, as the narrative interjects periodically from page one, with quotes from the trial. So you know from the beginning that Pierce and his accomplices are going to be caught. Just a good old-fashioned heist story, well told and competently written. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Βαθμολογία: 9/10

Αυτό είναι το δέκατο πέμπτο βιβλίο του Μάικλ Κράιτον που διαβάζω και σίγουρα είναι από τα καλύτερά του μέχρι στιγμής. Το είχα τσιμπήσει με τέσσερα ευρώ από το Παζάρι Βιβλίου τον Ιανουάριο του 2011 και από τότε έπιανε σκόνη στη βιβλιοθήκη μου. Τελικά το πήρα απόφαση να το διαβάσω επιτέλους και νιώθω τόσο χαρούμενος που το έκανα, μιας και διάβασα ένα πάρα μα πάρα πολύ ψυχαγωγικό βιβλίο.

Η όλη ιστορία βασίζεται σε αληθινά γεγονότα και διαδραματίζεται στα μέσα του 19ου αιώνα στη Μεγάλη Βρετανία, δηλαδή κατά τη Βικτωριανή εποχή. Ένα μεγαλόπνοο σχέδιο εξυφαίνεται από έναν πανέξυπνο και γοητευτικό εγκληματία, τον Έντουαρντ Πιρς, όπου έχει σκοπό να κάνει την μπάζα του αιώνα, ληστεύοντας μια αποστολή χρυσού από ένα τρένο. Στο όλο κόλπο θα συμμετάσχουν με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο διάφοροι εγκληματίες, μικρά αλλά σημαντικά γρανάζια μιας μηχανής εγκλήματος...

Ο τρόπος που ο Κράιτον παρουσιάζει την ιστορία αλλά και την εποχή, είναι πραγματικά μοναδικός. Ουσιαστικά έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα κράμα ιστορικού μυθιστορήματος, περιπέτειας, αλλά και κοινωνιολογικής παρουσίασης. Υπάρχουν διάφορες σκηνές με δράση, συνωμοσίες και κόλπα εγκληματιών, αλλά επίσης γινόμαστε μάρτυρες μιας εποχής, μαθαίνουμε πράγματα για την κοινωνία της Βικτωριανής Αγγλίας, για τον κόσμο του εγκλήματος, για τη ζωή στο Λονδίνο, για διάφορα σημαντικά πράγματα που έχουν σχέση με την πλοκή. Η γραφή είναι πάρα πολύ καλή, ευκολοδιάβαστη και εθιστική, με ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές των διαφόρων καταστάσεων και των χαρακτήρων.

Όπως είπα στην αρχή, είναι σίγουρα ένα από τα καλύτερα βιβλία του Μάικλ Κράιτον που διαβάζω. Ευχαριστήθηκα πλοκή και χαρακτήρες, ενώ επίσης ταξίδεψα σε μια άλλη εποχή, μακρινή και πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα. Γι'αυτό δεν θα διστάσω να το βαθμολογήσω με πέντε αστεράκια στο Goodreads (δεν μπορώ να βάλω τεσσεράμισι), και ας ξέρω ότι έτσι ίσως αδικώ κάποια άλλα βιβλία. Όμως πέρασα τέλεια! Λίαν συντόμως θα δω και την ομότιτλη ταινία του 1978, που σκηνοθετεί ο ίδιος ο Κράιτον. Ευτυχώς ανήκει στην ταινιοθήκη μου.