When
debonair secret agent Sir Maurice Newbury attends the unrolling
of a mummy he does not know quite what he is letting himself
in for. The cream of society is also at the event, but this
is no ordinary mummy and it brings murder in its wake. At
the same time Sir Maurice is left wondering why an agent arriving
from St Petersburg by train has not turned up, while his assistant
Veronica Hobbes is keen to discover why young women are vanishing
after being used as part of a magician's vanishing act.
I confess that I was less than impressed with the first book
in the series, finding it lacking in pace and peopled with
shadowy characters it was hard to really engage with. No such
problems beset book two which delivers exactly what it says
on the tin and then some with style and gusto. This is the
steampunk I always hope to encounter but rarely do, filled
with dashing agents, thrilling chases, unearthly creatures
and of course plenty of steam-driven machinery. Whether the
protagonists are tussling with villains or investigating,
there is always something going on, and delivered with an
imagination that brings an alternative 1902 to life. I enjoyed
reading about the various contraptions and how it all differed
to the way it actually was and did not mind that Newbury and
Hobbes remain fairly lightly sketched in. At a time when most
books have plenty of angst-ridden introspection on the part
of their main characters I was pleased to be reading one that
is pretty much all plot driven with plenty of action. Newbury
has his drugs and Veronica has her sister to worry about but
neither drags down the tone or the pace. It harks back to
the fiction of the age it portrays a parallel version of,
a device which suits the tale very well. I can't wait to read
the third installment of this series.
Reviewers
Note: Some violence and gory scenes
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