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Four stars means a very good book with a few reservations in my rating system, and The Race earns its place there. The early aviation setting gives this fourth Isaac Bell adventure plenty of appeal. Flying across America in a machine that might struggle to get you safely across a field is an ambitious undertaking even before someone starts interfering with the aircraft.

Once the plans begin coming together, Archer’s skill becomes much more apparent. He moves between the people involved, supplies enough information to invite speculation and keeps the practical questions interesting. I wanted to know how the scheme would work, where it would go wrong and which person had underestimated someone else. That curiosity carried me through the later sections very happily.

More than a century later, journalist Abigail Foster joins an expedition to the deserted Colorado mining town with her father, historian Lawrence Kendall. He left her when she was a child, so a remote wilderness trip is hardly the easiest setting for their reunion. Two guides and a couple interested in paranormal investigation accompany them. With a storm approaching and civilisation a long way off, their search for answers becomes increasingly dangerous.