The Ghost and the Railway

John Shawcross, a man in his sixties who has recently been given the devastating news that he has cancer, falls down a hidden crevice in the woods, sustaining crippling injuries. There he lies waiting for a rescue he fears will never come. But the fall and the cancer that grows within him are only small fractions of his life’s sad, but often heart-warming, story.In 1959, when John is just ten years old, he witnesses his best friend being struck and killed by a steam train on the local railway line. As time goes by, and he grows from a boy into a man, the railway’s mysterious and sinister origins are revealed. Through love lost and found, and tragedy and joy, John discovers secrets, some from beyond the grave, that have profound consequences on his entire life.A childhood in the 1950s; a coming-of-age in the 1960s; a crime mystery in the 1970s; and a supernatural tale that binds it all together. Are you ready to take the journey?“Ask any Hutchinson-reader which is their favourite novel by the author and they will more often than not choose this one. Genre-wise, it’s a novel that is hard to pigeonhole. It’s chilling yet heartwarming. It has horror and yet it has joy. When stripped to its bare bones, it’s the story of one man’s life, filled with equal measures of tragedy and joy.”“They say finishing a good novel is like saying goodbye to a dear friend. This is one of those books.”

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