The Lost Special by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

On the 3rd of June 1890, a gentleman who gave his name as Monsieur Louis Caratal, arrived at the London and West Coast Central station in Liverpool.

Affairs of the utmost importance require him to travel to Paris without delay. Having missed the London Express M. Caratal asks that a Special train be provided - money is no object.

The Special train duly sets off from Liverpool but never arrives in Manchester, apparently disappearing somewhere en route.

But a train can't just disappear into thin air, can it? Perhaps there has been a terrible accident?

Upon investigation the incredulous police and railway officials cannot explain what might have happened to the train and its passengers. The newspapers are flooded with suggestions; one even proffered in The Times by an 'amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date' (possibly an allusion to Sherlock Holmes), but no theory leads to the recovery of the missing train.

And so the matter stood, until a prisoner under a death sentence for murder, one Herbert de Lernac, offers a confession.

He at last reveals how one of the greatest and most inexplicable crimes of the century was executed and finally discloses the fate of the 4.31 from Liverpool and its passengers.

An intriguing story of villainy and ingenuity from one of Britain's most famous crime writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Read by David Schofield.

Producer: Heather Larmour

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra - and first broadcast in February 2012.