Blurb

An 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.

Review

As well as being about a disappearance, a murder and ghosts in the darkness of Victorian London, this story is very informative historically about how gaslight was used in theatres at the time, to create wonderfully dramatic, almost ethereal, illusions. It also highlighted to me the origins of the term “in the limelight”.

The story is noir-ish in tempo and style, with elaborate detail about the use of gaslight, the physicality and danger of the gas-boy profession and London at night. The spectacle of the “theatrical” ghostly production around London is something I would have loved to have been real and have seen for myself.

I loved the strength of character and independence of Cassie and Flora, something definitely frowned upon by society at the time. Just like me though, neither of them saw the twist at the end coming.

Thanks to Neem Tree Press for the ARC to review for this blog tour.