BY GASLIGHT, Steven Price's second novel, opens in 1885 London. William Pinkerton, eldest son of the famous detective agency founder, has traveled across the ocean in search of clues to the whereabouts of Edward Shade. His father tried to track down this criminal, and now William is hoping a young woman, Mary Reckitt can point him in the right direction. But then a young woman's head is found in the Thames, and William and Scotland Yard's John Shore identify her as Reckitt. So William's long-time search for Shade, whom some doubt even exists, must go in a different direction.
Adam Foole, a thief and con, has traveled to London because of a letter from a woman with whom he had an affair 10 years before. This woman also happens to be the aforementioned Mary Reckitt. The two men form a tenuous bond to track down the woman's killer for their own reasons, but William doesn't let go of his obsession with Shade.
Not only does the novel take the reader all over Londonβfrom sΓ©ances to opium dens to the sewersβbut it travels the world including South Africa, India and all over the United States. And it spans decades from Civil War treachery to the present, from betrayal to betrayal, it describes the intertwining lives of the Pinkertons and the other characters that liven up this novel.
A poet, Steven Price has turned description to an art form. My one caveat here is that sometimes the description overtook the story, and I felt buried in detail. On the other hand, some of his language is so vivid as to truly paint pictures in the mind that give even more life to his characters and their surroundings. Intrigued by the story while reading it, I sometimes found it easier to lay down then pick up again. I read a lot and while this is a lot book, for it to have taken me nearly a week to read is nearly unheard of for me.
That said, if you fancy historical fiction and like a mystery that has layers and layers and stories within stories and relationships within relationships, then BY GASLIGHT will appeal. I may go back and check out Price's earlier work, provided it isn't quite as long.
By Gaslight is a deeply atmospheric, haunting novel about
the unending quest that has shaped a manβs life.
William Pinkerton is already famous, the son of the most
notorious detective of all time, when he descends into the
underworld of Victorian London in pursuit of a new lead on
the fabled con Edward Shade. Williamβs father died without
ever finding Shade, but William is determined to drag the
thief out of the shadows.
Adam Foole is a gentleman without a past, haunted by a love
affair ten years gone. When he receives a letter from his
lost beloved, he returns to London to find her. What he
learns of her fate, and its connection to the man known as
Shade, will force him to confront a grief he thought
long-buried.
A fog-enshrouded hunt through sewers, opium dens, drawing
rooms, and sΓ©ance halls ensues, creating the most unlikely
of bonds: between Pinkerton, the great detective, and Foole,
the one man who may hold the key to finding Edward Shade.
Steven Priceβs dazzling, riveting By Gaslight moves
from the diamond mines of South Africa to the battlefields
of the Civil War, on a journey into a cityscape of grief,
trust, and its breaking, where what we share can bind us
even against our darker selves.
No excerpt available.
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