Cover image of

The Boy on the Train

By Martin Goodman

Cover image of

Category: All Books, Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Fiction, LGBTQ+

Formats available: Paperback, Ebook

Pages: 320

Publication date: 07/10/25

ISBN-13: 9781917352079

ISBN-10: 1917352077

Silently, digitally, a boy takes apart your family

Tom’s a regular teenager – sullen, anxious, super-smart, feeling safe within his bedroom and wedded to his screen.

On a packed train, a London commodities trader gets under his skin.

The trader’s got a fine wife, two kids, a yappy dog, big house, annual bonus. Tom hacks him. The trader’s hardware becomes stuffed with dangerous, damaging images. Call it collateral damage.

Hacking is what Tom does. He’s got control of the keyboards of key players in the fossil fuel industry. If he doesn’t bring down the grid, who will?

Roads and trainlines lead the main players to a violent confrontation in the brutalist surrounds of London’s Barbican Centre. Government agents work to prevent a global blackout. Tom’s set to save the planet.

Who will win?

 

“Sinuously written, subtly subversive: will keep you on the edge of your (train) seat” – Beatrice Hitchman, author of All of You Every Single One

Reviews

Sinuously written, subtly subversive: a love song to our whirling, chilling, digital world. Will keep you on the edge of your (train) seat long after you’ve missed your stop…

- Beatrice Hitchman

Welcome to Barbican Press

Martin Goodman

Martin Goodman was born in Leicester and grew up in Loughborough, attending the grammar school there, before spinning off into the world. Early career thoughts were of being a chef or a lawyer, and indeed when studying English at Leeds University he almost switched to Law. A comparison of the reading lists held him back. Later he took a teaching degree in English as a Second Language, and early years saw him teaching English overseas to earn money and experience, and then spending it all on time to write before …

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New Title and Cover Reveal

We’re excited to share our newest title releasing this autumn! Watch the video below to see the cover reveal… https://barbicanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Boy-on-the-Train-Cover-Reveal.mp4