Nocturne with Gaslamps - Matthew Francis - ★★
PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2024
RATING: 2 stars.
RATING: 2 stars.
In a Nutshell: A crime fiction set In Victorian England. The gaslight theatre setting is appealing, but the pacing, the plot development, the female characters and the mystery itself didn’t work for me.
Plot Preview:
1882. Hastings Wimbury has always dreamt of playing Hamlet on a West End stage, but the closest he has got to the theatre so far is in his new job as a ‘gas boy’, taking care of the gas chandelier and the other gas-based light and shadow machines in the theatre. When a strange man meets him with an equally strange proposal, Hastings is not sure whether to accept it or not. But soon, the decision goes out of his control.
The story comes to us from the third person perspective of mainly three characters: Hastings, Cassie (an assistant to a ‘spirit investigator’), and Flora (Hastings’ secret fiancée.)
Bookish Yays:
💎 The theatre setting, especially all the details connected with theatre lighting of that era. Fascinating to read and learn!
💎 The ‘nocturne’ atmosphere, so prevalent throughout the plot in various ways. It was almost as if the author was playing with light and shadow through his words. Love how the era came alive, especially in the darkness scenes.
💎 No infodumps, unlike most mysteries.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🎭 The prologue, set six months after the main story, sets a creepy beginning to the novel. However, once the main narration begins, the time references aren’t given and we have to figure out the change in months ourselves. Also, when the incident in the prologue actually occurs in the main time frame, it isn’t repeated (which is good), but is an in-between-chapter scene that is not explained at all (which is disappointing.)
🎭 Hastings – an interesting character whose eccentricity lends itself to some curious moments. It would have been great to see more depth to his personality.
Bookish Nays:
💣 The portrayal of the two main women characters Cassie and Flora: Though both their arcs started off with tremendous promise, I just didn’t find them believable later on. Their decisions and actions made no sense considering their earlier character development. Cassie’s conversion from a logically-thinking assistant to a “rival in love” is too abrupt and absurd to be convincing.
💣 Several important aspects are only told to us but never shown. For instance, Dr. Farthing, Cassie’s employer, is supposed to be a reputed ‘spirit investigator’, but we never see him in action, even though Cassie makes multiple mentions of his work and is a dedicated student of his techniques of human observation. Flora’s appearance in the city is sudden, but we don’t get to see the whys of her decision or the hows of her solo travel. Cassie’s background and the circumstances through which she found a job with a person who investigates the validity of seances is never explored. It was almost like the entire novel functioned only through present events, no past background to add depth.
💣 The pacing is slow-burn and meandering.
💣 The plot development seems a bit disjointed. The core mystery could have been interesting had it been the sole focus; the extraneous elements are just distractions. The events in the second half stretch incredulity.
💣 This is promoted as a historical crime novel. The blurb talks of Hastings going missing and his fiancée Flora and “her rival in love” Cassie coming together to locate him. Guess what? Hastings doesn’t go missing until the 60% mark. Moreover, we already know the person responsible for the “crime”, thanks to Hastings getting his own narrative perspective. So the first 60% is spent in waiting for the “crime” to occur, and the remaining is spent in waiting for the ladies to catch up and figure out the whos and the whys.
💣 The actual reveal is quite disappointing, almost like a deus ex machina.
💣 The epilogue, set two decades later, seems pointless.
Unlike many of my reader friends, mysteries are mostly a miss for me. But I have had better luck with historical mysteries, and this, combined with the Victorian theatre setting, made me give this book a try. But it wasn’t my cup of tea. I *might* have enjoyed this better had the mystery been more prominent and the women characters more convincing. But waiting till the 60% mark to read what the blurb had already revealed was too much a test of my patience.
To me, this was a one-time reading experience, and not a memorable one. You might still enjoy this if you enjoy slow-burn crime stories where the focus isn’t the mystery itself but the setting and the characters. Do read other reviews and take a more informed call on this work.
My thanks to TheWriteReads, Neem Tree Press, author Matthew Francis, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of 'Nocturne with Gaslamps', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn't work out better.
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Blurb:
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.
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Author Matthew Francis:
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.
Connect with him on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mfrancispoet
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This has been a stop on the #NocturneWithGaslamps blog tour conducted by TheWriteReads (@The_WriteReads). Thanks for stopping by!
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