Thomas Morris
Writer and historian of the remarkable
The Dublin Railway Murder
A locked room. A brutal murder. A city transfixed.
November 1856. Dublin awakes to the shocking news of a railway cashier found dead in his locked office at the Broadstone terminus — his throat cut, his money untouched. What begins as a suspected suicide soon spirals into one of the most complex murder investigations Victorian Ireland has ever seen.
Drawing on secret police files and original witness statements, The Dublin Railway Murder vividly reconstructs a real-life murder mystery — and the extraordinary events that followed the arrest of the prime suspect.
About me
I am a writer with interests ranging from the history of medicine to nineteenth-century true crime.
My first book, The Matter of the Heart, was a critically-acclaimed history of cardiac surgery and won an RSL Jerwood Award for non-fiction. My second, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth, was named one of the best books of 2018 by Mental Floss. The Dublin Railway Murder was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for non-fiction.
Thomas Morris
Writer and historian
Previous books
In The Matter of the Heart, I trace the extraordinary story of how surgeons first dared to operate on the human heart — once thought beyond the reach of medicine. Through eleven remarkable operations, I explore the risks, rivalries and moments of brilliance that transformed the heart from a symbol of life into a site of hope.
From self-surgery to spontaneous combustion, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth reveals the gruesomely funny side of medicine they never taught at medical school. This collection of extraordinary curiosities brings history’s most bizarre case notes vividly — and hilariously — back to life.
Coming soon…
A dastardly crime. An unbreakable alibi. A national sensation.
My latest book is a true-crime thriller set in London’s docklands during the Napoleonic wars. Based on a real-life murder mystery, it tells the story of a case that gripped the nation, culminating in one of the most dramatic trials of the Georgian era. Out in November 2026.