LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
The vanishing of a theatre gas-boy. Ghostly goings-on in 1883 London. A mysterious Count. A duo of female detectives set on solving the gas-boy’s disappearance. And so an atmospherically illuminated stage is set for a rich and suspenseful story. And boy does Matthew Francis deliver all that - and more - in Nocturne with Gaslamps.
We first meet Hastings Wimbury through the eyes of Cassie, a stenographer whose keen eye for observational detail will later stand her in good stead. Hastings is an aspiring actor who’s long wanted to play Hamlet, but currently works as a gas-boy in a London theatre, where he operates an enormous gas chandelier, and encounters a Count from Cimmerian, “Land of Darkness”, according to the Count.
Hastings’ disappearance sees his fiancée and Cassie come together to try to find him, as the city falls into darkness, its streets haunted by spirits.
Dancing with intrigue and period charm, Nocturne with Gaslamps is Victorian crime mystery at its most characterful and gloriously gothic.
Joanne Owen
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Nocturne With Gaslamps Synopsis
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.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781915584236 |
Publication date: |
5th September 2024 |
Author: |
Matthew Francis |
Publisher: |
Neem Tree Press |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
254 pages |
Primary Genre |
Crime and Mystery
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Other Genres: |
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Author
About Matthew Francis
Matthew Francis is Professor Emeritus in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. He read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge University. He writes novels, short stories, and poetry collections. He has won the TLS / Blackwell's Prize for Poetry and the Southern Arts Literature Prize, and been shortlisted twice for the Forward Prize, twice for the Welsh Book of the Year Award and once for the Ted Hughes Award. In 2004, he was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. Matthew lives with this wife in Aberystwyth, Wales where he enjoys playing chess, cooking and playing the ukulele.
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