Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 2008)

From the Publisher:
Lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side in Victorian London -- and Edward Pierce easily navigates both worlds. Rich, handsome, and ingenious, he charms the city's most prominent citizens even as he plots the crime of his century, the daring theft of a fortune in gold. But even Pierce could not predict the consequences of an extraordinary robbery that targets the pride of England's industrial era: the mighty steam locomotive.

Based on remarkable fact, and alive with the gripping suspense, surprise, and authenticity that are his trademarks, Michael Crichton's classic adventure is a breathtaking thrill-ride that races along tracks of steel at breakneck speed.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. Harper, ISBN: 9780061706493 (October, 2008), 384 p., $9.99.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
In teeming Victorian London, where lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side, Edward Pierce charms the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of the century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the daring theft of a fortune in gold? Who could predict the consequences of making the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England's industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, as lively as legend, and studded with all the suspense and style of a modern fiction master, here is a classic caper novel set a decade before the age of dynamite - yet nonetheless explosive...

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. Avon Books, ISBN: 0060502304 (November, 2002), 320 p., $7.99.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
In teeming Victorian London, where lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Rich, handsome and ingenious, 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 daring theft of a fortune in gold? Who would predict the consequences of making the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England's industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, as lively as legend, and studded with all the suspense and style of a modern fiction master, here is a classic novel, set a decade before the age of dynamite - yet nonetheless explosive...

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. Arrow, ISBN: 009948241X (April, 1995), 281 p., £4.99.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
In teeming Victorian London, where lavish wealth and appalling poverty live side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Rich, handsome, and ingenious, Edward Pierce charms 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 daring theft of a fortune in gold? Who could predict the consequences of making the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England's industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, as lively as legend, and studded with all the suspense and style of a modern fiction master, here is a classic caper novel set a decade before the age of dynamite -- yet nonetheless explosive…

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. Ballantine, ISBN: 034539092X (April, 1995), 281 p., $.5.99.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
A STUNNING RECREATION OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND'S MOST FAMOUS CRIME...
By 1854 England had become a nation of cities, the first and wealthiest urbanized society on earth. The railroads -- speeding steam-powered monsters -- now roared into their own, a mighty symbol of progress... and a challenge to Britain's craftiest criminals.

And first among these ruthless, dangerous men was a gentleman-turned-rogue, Edward Pierce, the mastermind behind the heist of the century -- The Great Train Robbery. Brilliant, charming, and destructively irresissible to women, Edward Pierce and his crime exposed the dark side of progress, the seamy hidden heart of the Victorian age -- and Michael Crichton's startling account reveals it all!

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. Dell, ISBN: 0440130999 (October, 1993), 266 p., $.5.99.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 1976)

From the Publisher:
England, 1855. The days of Queen Victoria. Once a month a train roars toward the Channel laden with a fantastic shipment of gold. The train is guarded. The two safes are invulnerable... Yet Edward Pierce, a handsome, redbearded rogue, will have his way. In his plan he will choose one companion -- a beautiful and dangerous woman. He will commit one of the most shocking crimes of the century...

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. A Novel. Bantam, ISBN: 0553024248 (June, 1976), 300 p., $1.95.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (UK 1975)

From the Publisher:
Once a month a train leaves London for Paris, laden with gold bullion for the British Army in Russia. The carriage is guarded. The two safes are invulnerable - there is no way to break into them. Four keys are needed to unlock them and every other possible precaution has been taken.

Then one month the safes arrive in Paris -- but the gold is gone.

Edward Pierce has hatched, nurtured and somehow executed the inconceivable theft -- a scheme so impressively cunning and sophisticated that press and public vigorously insist that it can only have been devised by an Englishman. Queen Victoria pronounces him a 'most bold and dastardly rogue', but one whom 'she should like to perceive at first hand'. Most think him to be a gentleman and well-educated, though no one has ever traced the truth about this handsome, captivating cracksman.

Pierce assembles his accomplices: the fleet-fingered Agar, the coarse, reliable Barlow and beautiful, versatile Miriam. A fifteen-shilling-a-week train guard doesn't hesitate long over a £200 price-tag for his temporary blind eye. Boarding at London Bridge Station, we see Pierce forced into desperate action, meeting unforeseen slip-ups with split-second recoveries as the express roars towards the Channel.

Michael Crichton, with his unique documentary approach to the novel of suspense, has woven a superb narrative, rich in fascinating detail which brings gaslit Victorian London vividly to life.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. A Novel. Jonathan Cape, ISBN: 0224011898 (October, 1975), 255 p., £2.95.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery (USA 1975)

From the Publisher:
1855. Victoria firmly on her throne. War raging in the Crimea. And, in London, a masterpiece of crime -- the most daring train robbery of the century...

Once a month a train leaves London for Paris, laden with gold bullion for the British Army fighting in Russia. The carriage is guarded. The two safes are invulnerable -- no way to break into them, four separate keys needed to unlock them. Every possible precaution taken by the authorities.

Then one month the safes arrive in Paris -- but the gold is gone.

We know why... We have watched a fantastic plan improvised and carried out by a master criminal--by the handsome, charming, and ruthless Edward Pierce (a rogue aristocrat? a self-educated thug? No one has ever discerned the truth).

We have watched Pierce bring together his accomplices -- the beautiful Miriam, the sinister Barlow; the light-fingered Agar. We have seen him corrupt a susceptible train guard, contrive the escape (from an escape-proof prison) of a supreme cat burglar, for the single purpose of lifting two of the keys. We have seen Pierce himself court the proper young woman whose father has the third key... seen the fourth key "removed" from around the neck of a visitor to an elegant bordello. We have boarded the train with Pier seen him forced into desperate action as the express roars toward the Channel. We see him pursued, captured, tried and...

We know -- immersed in thieves' strategies, thieves argot -- that this is how it must have been. Michael Crichton, with his unique documentary approach to the novel of suspense, has given us a superb narrative (is it fiction? is it fact?) made even more compelling by the verisimilitude of its compulsively fascinating detail.

Michael Crichton: The Great Train Robbery. A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN: 0394494016 (May, 1975), 266 p., $.?:??.