Thanks to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for the gifted book in order to join the book tour with my honest review.
A historical crime fiction novel set in Victorian London’s gaslit theatre scene, where ghosts lurk in the shadows and murder takes centre stage.
Gaslight. Ghosts. Murder.
Hastings Wimbury has always dreamt of playing Hamlet, but for now he works as a theatre gas-boy. Here, he tends to a gas chandelier so powerful it creates its own weather, and limelight machines that can throw a shadow onto a wall ten miles away.
When Hastings suddenly disappears, his fiancée Flora sets out to find him with the help of Cassie, her rival in love who is more preoccupied with the ghosts terrorising the streets of London. Soon total darkness is imposed upon the city, and they realise that something far more sinister is at hand…
Ladies aren’t supposed to solve mysteries, but this is a matter of life and death.
Nocturne With Gaslamps had me at gothic and crime! The cover of the book and the blurb gave me no chance of not wanting to read this book! I love an atmospheric story, and this had it in spades!
The author takes his time setting the scene and immersing the reader in Victorian London and the theatres of the time. I appreciated this as I got to know the characters and felt like I could l know them. It’s a cleverly atmospheric read with paranormal elements that bring even more edge to the tale.
It’s a perfect book for the darker nights as summer draws to a close. I would even say it’s creepy enough for Halloween time! I found it absorbing, atmospheric, and so enthralling. I finished it in no time at all. Another highly recommended novel, especially if you like your crime with a dash of the gothic!
Author Bio
Matthew Francis is a poet, novelist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. He is the author of seven poetry collections, three novels and a collection of short stories. He is also the editor of W.S. Graham’s New Collected Poems, and author of a study of Graham, Where the People Are. He lives in West Wales with his wife, Creina.
His third novel, Nocturne with Gaslamps, is published by Neem Tree Press on 5 September 2024. It’s a historical crime fiction novel set in Victorian London’s gaslit theatre scene, where ghosts lurk in the shadows and murder takes centre stage.
Nocturne with Gaslamps arose out of his lifelong fascination with night, darkness and sleep. His starting point was the legend of a land of perpetual darkness, mentioned by Homer and by the writers of the Middle Ages. Putting that together with his love of the Victorian novel, particularly Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins, he came up with the idea of a story in which the forces of – literal – darkness were pitted against the extraordinary Victorian technology of gaslamps, which introduced light pollution to the modern world. Other elements, the female detectives, the theatre-obsessed young man, the manipulative Count and the prowling ghosts, arose naturally from the theme. The book aims to capture the atmosphere of late nineteenth-century London, the setting for Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper, and to combine suspense and entertainment in the way that the best Victorian novelists do.
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