The Great Train Robbery (novel)

Plot

In 1854, Edward Pierce, a charismatic and affluent "cracksman" or master thief, makes plans to steal a shipment of gold worth more than twenty five thousand pounds being transported monthly from London to the Crimean War front. He faces enormous obstacles as the bank has taken strict precautions, including locking the gold in two heavy safes, each of which has two locks, thus requiring a total of four keys to open. He recruits Robert Agar, a "screwsman" or specialist in copying keys, as an accomplice.

To ensure the success of his bold plan, Pierce spends more than a year in preparation. His first steps are fairly easy as he uses his wealth and social contacts to procure information on the security measures and locations of the keys. The bank's president, Edgar Trent, and its general manager, Henry Fowler, each possess a key. The other two are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge railroad terminus.

Pierce's first target is the key held by Edgar Trent. The attempt to take Trent's key is difficult, as Pierce has no clues or prior information on his habits. Through painstaking surveillance, conversations with bank employees and a deliberately bungled pickpocketing attempt, Pierce deduces that Trent's key is kept at his mansion, but is still unable to learn the exact location. After learning that Trent is keen on ratting (a blood sport involving the betting on dogs killing rats), Pierce succeeds in becoming acquainted with the man and while visiting the Trent mansion feigns a romantic interest in Elizabeth Trent, Trent's plain twenty-nine-year-old daughter, who has had few suitors. Edward pretends to court Elizabeth and learns that the key is most likely located in the basement wine cellar. With the assistance of his longtime mistress, known only as "Miss Miriam" (who is also an actress), and his loyal associate, a buck cabby named Barlow, Pierce and Agar successfully break into Trent's home by night and make a wax copy of the key after locating it in the wine cellar.

Henry Fowler contracts syphilis and, being unwilling to seek medical attention out of embarrassment, asks his friend Pierce, as a bachelor and a sporting gentleman, to aid him in seeking a remedy: sleeping with a virgin. After making the necessary arrangements through a madam (and charging Fowler the exorbitant price of one hundred fifty guineas) for a night of pleasure with a twelve-year-old "fresh," (twelve being the legal age of consent), Pierce and Agar take advantage of the opportunity to make a copy of Fowler's key, which he always carries with him around his neck but takes off and leaves with his clothes during the assignation at the request of his virgin.

The most difficult keys to copy are the two keys at the train station, which Pierce plans to procure and copy by night. The presence of "crushers" (policemen) and "jacks" (security guards) forces him to recruit a "snakesman" (a burglar able to slip inside buildings through small and cramped spaces) nicknamed "Clean Willy", who is currently incarcerated in the high-security Newgate Prison. He sends a message through Willy's former mistress and assists him in escaping from the supposedly escape-proof Newgate while the public is distracted by a public execution outside the prison. After nursing Willy back to health from injuries received during the escape, the criminals succeed in making wax copies of the two keys at the railway station, completing the task with only seconds to spare before detection.

Now possessed of all four copies of the necessary keys, Pierce loses no time in bribing Burgess, the poorly paid guard on the train who rides in the baggage van containing the safes. Agar is then able to perform a dry run of the theft on 17 February 1855, making sure that the copied keys work perfectly.

Everything appears to be moving along smoothly; the actual theft is planned for May 22 when the would-be thieves find themselves seriously compromised: Clean Willy turns nose (informs to the police), disrupting Pierce's lay. Pierce's cabby Barlow murders Willy before he can reveal the most crucial information, although their plans are now in danger of discovery by Scotland Yard. Harranby, a very senior detective, correctly fears that a major robbery is at hand. Through careful manipulation of a "blower" (informant), the criminals manage to divert the police's attention to an alleged robbery of the transatlantic cable company's payroll in Greenwich, leaving them free and clear to finally strike.

On the eve of the Great Train Robbery, another unexpected development occurs. A new railway policy requires the train doors to be locked from the outside and prohibits anyone except the guard from riding in the goods van. Unwilling to further delay their plans, Pierce smuggles Agar into the baggage van inside a coffin and then risks his life by climbing across the roof of the train during the journey. He unlocks the door from outside, thus allowing them to drop off the gold at a pre-arranged point. By the next day, much of England is in an uproar upon the discovery of the robbery, with every organisation involved in the gold shipment blaming each other, few leads as to the true culprits and no idea how it was done. The members of the gang drop out of sight.

Although their daring plan appears to have succeeded, Pierce, Agar and Burgess are ultimately arrested after Agar's mistress, who has been caught in the act of robbing a drunk, becomes a police informant to escape imprisonment. Agar confesses after being threatened by the police with transportation to Australia. Pierce and Burgess are arrested at a prize-fighting event in Manchester, and all three are convicted. Pierce is sentenced to a long prison term, but escapes while being transported from court and disappears (it is presumed that Barlow and Miss Miriam arranged it).

After Pierce's escape, conflicting reports indicate he, Miriam and Barlow spend the rest of their lives living in luxury, reportedly in various foreign cities. The train guard Burgess dies of cholera during his short prison term; Agar is indeed transported to Australia, but on completion of his sentence prospers and passes away a wealthy man in 1902. Edgar Trent dies from a chest ailment in 1857, while Henry Fowler dies from "unknown causes" in 1858. The arresting officer Harranby dies in 1879 after being kicked in the head by a horse he had been flogging.

The final line of the novel reads, "The money from the Great Train Robbery was never recovered."

Characters

Background

Crichton became aware of the story when lecturing at Cambridge University. He later read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching the historical period.

Historical deviations

The story is a fictionalised representation of the historical events that happened, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. The character names are mixed up in the novel. For example, the main protagonist William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce, and Edward Agar to Robert Agar. Crichton admitted he did not want to be constrained by what actually happened. The true story of the robbery can be found in the book by David C. Hanrahan: The First Great Train Robbery.

Reception

The New York Times called it "Mr Crichton's best thriller to date". The Los Angeles Times described it as "marvellous fun".

The book was one of the biggest best selling novels in the US in 1975.

Film adaptation

The novel was later made into a 1979 film entitled The First Great Train Robbery directed by Crichton starring Sean Connery as Pierce, Donald Sutherland as Agar and Lesley-Anne Down as Miriam. Unlike the real incident, the protagonists are seen to escape to freedom after the trial. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography Award for the British Society of Cinematographers, and the film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture by the Edgar Allan Poe award by the Mystery Writers Association of America. The film score by Jerry Goldsmith was short, but a favourite in the composer's repertoire and an extended version of the music was released in 2004.