From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an enthralling novel about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…

Definitive account of the famous 1963 Great Train Robbery - and its aftermath. In the early hours of Thursday 8th August 1963 at rural Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, £2.6 million (£50 million today) in unmarked £5, £1 and 10-shilling notes was stolen from the Glasgow to London nightmail train in a daring and brilliantly executed operation lasting just 46 minutes. Quickly dubbed the crime of the century, it has captured the imagination of the public and the world's media for 50 years, taking its place in British folklore and giving birth to the myths of The Great Train Robbery. Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds became household names. But what really happened? This is the story of four talented villains who took the criminal world by storm, of the 'perfect crime'. It is also the story of ruthless policemen, determined to hunt the robbers down and to make sure nobody slipped through the net, not even the innocent. It is the story of an Establishment under siege, and of one mistake which cost the robbers 307 years in prison. Fifty years later, here is the story set out in full for the first time, a true-life crime thriller, and also a vivid slice of British social history.

In May 1855, the citizens of Victorian Great Britain were shocked to read in their morning edition of The Times that 12,000 pounds worth of gold bars and other valuables had been stolen from a train travelling between London and Paris--without explosives or violence! Who did it and how was a great mystery which was finally solved.

From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an electrifying thriller in which a shocking accusation of sexual harassment triggers a gripping psychological game of cat and mouse and threatens to derail a brilliant career. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A fresh and provocative story.”—People An up-and-coming executive at the computer firm DigiCom, Tom Sanders is a man whose corporate future is certain. But after a closed-door meeting with his new boss—a woman who is his former lover and has been promoted to the position he expected to have—Sanders finds himself caught in a nightmarish web of deceit in which he is branded the villain. As Sanders scrambles to defend himself, he uncovers an electronic trail into the company’s secrets—and begins to grasp that a cynical and manipulative scheme has been devised to bring him down. “Crichton writes superbly. . . . The excitement rises with each page.”—Chicago Tribune “A heart-stop story running on several tracks at once. Disclosure is up to [Crichton’s] usual locomotive speed.”—The Boston Globe “Expertly crafted, ingenious and absorbing.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

The theft of 120 mailbags from a travelling post office has been dubbed the crime of the century. Reproduced here are extracts from the report of Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, which was submitted to the Home Office in 1964. At that time the investigation was still not complete: much of the #2.6 million had not been recovered and at least three of the robbers were still at large. A brief postscript covers the later arrest and sentencing of Buster Edwards, Bruce Reynolds and James White - and the re-arrest of Ronnie Biggs in 2001, 36 years after his escape from prison.

Gordon Goody is the mystery man of the Great Train Robbery, the most notorious theft in British history. Regarded by his partners as tough and fearless, he has kept his silence for five decades. Until now. Raised in rural Northern Ireland, Goody served as an army sergeant but chose a life of crime and became one of the most professional and prolific robbers in London. He and his gang were offered the job of a lifetime: details of a Glasgow to London mail train laden with cash, provided by The Ulsterman, whose identity Goody reveals for the first time.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park comes classic historical thriller about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…