IT'S the shocking story that Dickens would have liked to tell but, held back by the powerful forces of his hard times, could only hint at. Welcome to Victorian London’s rotten underbelly... and a crime mystery that exposes corruption in the highest echelons of society, depravity so base that it must be hidden at all costs, filthy streets, child prostitution and slaughtered babies.
Inspired by Bleak House, Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, The
Man in Black (originally published as The Solitary House and Tom-All-Alone’s) is
literary mystery writer Lynn Shepherd’s (pictured below) glorious but grimly realistic pastiche
novel, a riveting tale which takes us deep within those 19th century
city haunts and shows us places which the celebrated novelist was forced to
draw with a pen blunted by form and convention.
With no such constraints and an omniscient narrator who helps us to see the past, present and future, 21st century readers can walk once again with the likes of ruthless lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn, wily Inspector Bucket of Scotland Yard and the mysterious Lady Dedlock to reimagine their lives and times. And it’s a brave author who takes up the reins of a Dickens novel, throws in some characters from Wilkie Collins’ best-seller, The Woman in White, and uses the pioneering studies of Victorian social philanthropist Henry Mayhew to recreate London’s stinking, rat-infested streets.
The result is an intelligent and gripping post-modern crime
novel. Beautifully written and cleverly plotted, it plunders the best of
Dickens without trying to ape his genius, maintains a sense of artful
playfulness amidst its gross themes, and refuses to be sidetracked by fears of
literary vandalism.
At the dark heart of the story is Tom-All-Alone’s, the notorious disease-ridden slum described in Bleak House, as well as one of the titles Dickens originally considered for the novel. The pivotal discovery of dead babies in the slum’s long-deserted graveyard sets the tone for Shepherd’s crime puzzle which runs parallel to the chronology of Bleak House and The Woman in White, but creates a thrilling whodunit combining motifs from both.
At his elegant chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the
formidable lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn has powerful clients to protect, and a
deadly secret to hide. But that secret is now under threat from an unseen
adversary, one who must be tracked down at all costs before it’s too late.
So who better for such a task than young Charles Maddox whose great uncle of the same name was the famous ‘thief-taker’ involved many years ago in the murder mystery at Mansfield Park.
Young Charles has a keen sense of injustice and was ejected from the Detective branch of the London police force for daring to challenge the deductions of a higher ranking officer when a man’s life was in the balance.He is now working as a private detective so when Tulkinghorn offers a handsome price for the apparently simple job of tracking down a malevolent letter writer, Charles is unable to resist the challenge. But he soon discovers that Tulkinghorn’s client, the merchant banker Sir Julius Cremorne, has a shadowy life that he and his lawyer will do anything to conceal. Nothing is what it seems and if Maddox delves deeper into the affair than the task demands, Tulkinghorn will make it his business to ensure that the detective ‘does not live to profit by it.’
However, young Charles is both brave and obstinate, and
nothing and nobody will deter him from seeking out the truth...
Despite its ‘borrowed’ themes, Shepherd’s book brims with
originality and style – cameo appearances from literary characters and their
creators, piquant vignettes of Victorian life and an atmosphere redolent of
Dickens’ oppressive underworld make The Man in Black a rare and witty pleasure
for those familiar with the classics, and a thrilling page-turner for the
uninitiated. Ever the consummate entertainer, Dickens would surely have
been amused and flattered!
(Canelo, paperback, £9.99)
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