A Metropolitan Murder
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Review
" Victorian London is vividly brought to life... For an atmospheric picture of the period it's hard to beat."
-- "Sunday Telegraph"
-- "Sunday Telegraph"
Book Description
'Victorian London is vividly brought to life-for an atmospheric picture of the period it's hard to beat' Sunday Telegraph
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a bit of a Victorian 'buff' and lover of crime fiction, I looked forward to reading this novel. It got off to a cracking start with a body discovered in a Metropolitan Line train and I read on avidly to discover how the murder had been committed in such a public place. Nevertheless, this was hardly explored, I felt, nor were other aspects, such as the habits of the middle-class who liked to visit the haunts of the poor. They were known as 'slummers' but in this novel the police seemed surprised at such an activity. In fact the police were remarkably dense, which is the worst cliche of crime fiction. Cliches also abounded in the traditional view of Victorian London: the fog, the dirty Thames, the squalor,laudanum, poverty and middle class hypocrisy. It seems to me that the author, who has his own Victorian London website, is more interested in telling us about these things than creating believable characters and plot. I guessed who the murderer was pretty early on but I wouldn't have minded that, had the motivation of any of the characters held my attention. As the previous reviewer so rightly pointed out, none of the characters made us care enough about them. And like many male writers, the author can't get under the skin of women. There's a female character who should hold our sympathy but doesn't because she ends up behaving like no woman would ever behave. Too much would give away the plot, so I'll say no more.
The main problem, though was viewpoint. The author kept explaining for the benefit of twenty-first century readers things that the people who lived through those times would take for granted. For example, how to stop a hackney carriage or that the streets were muddy and that crossing-sweepers only plied their trade in the smarter areas where they could expect a penny or two for their efforts.
I also felt it was a bit patronising and lacking any humour. Most of us know what Victorian London was like. Dickens got there first.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thoroughly enjoyable, 16 April 2008
I found this book to be an excellent and enjoyable read. The recreation of Victorian London was superb and the story flowed from start to finish. Characterisation was excellent and the plot believable, with a delicious twist in the tale. I wholly recommend this to anyone with an eye for a good old-fashioned Victorian melodrama.
Brian L Porter,
Author, A Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper
I found this book to be an excellent and enjoyable read. The recreation of Victorian London was superb and the story flowed from start to finish. Characterisation was excellent and the plot believable, with a delicious twist in the tale. I wholly recommend this to anyone with an eye for a good old-fashioned Victorian melodrama.
Brian L Porter,
Author, A Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper
Format:Paperback
It begins well enough in a fine old Shocking Murder! penny-dreadful style, but it never develops into what it ought to have been, nor what we expected. The characters are flimsy, the plot is predictable and there's as little sense of place generated by it as by Dick Van Dyke's cock-er-nee accent.
The final denoument is crammed hastily into a couple of pages and feels like an author who was simply bored of the whole business and wanted nothing more than to wrap it up and send it to the publisher. If the novel were twice its length, then there might be space for a little characterisation, something that's sorely lacking. The two female protagonists are sisters, yet we learn nothing of their relationship as they grew up together and their eventual crucial historical revelation is as much a surprise to them as it is to us.
It's a steamy piece of Victoriana alright, but there are so many out there far better than this - try "Necropolis Railway" for one.
The final denoument is crammed hastily into a couple of pages and feels like an author who was simply bored of the whole business and wanted nothing more than to wrap it up and send it to the publisher. If the novel were twice its length, then there might be space for a little characterisation, something that's sorely lacking. The two female protagonists are sisters, yet we learn nothing of their relationship as they grew up together and their eventual crucial historical revelation is as much a surprise to them as it is to us.
It's a steamy piece of Victoriana alright, but there are so many out there far better than this - try "Necropolis Railway" for one.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Murder on the Undgerground
The cover of this book proudly proclaims that "Victorian London is vividly brought to life...for an atmospheric picture of the period". Read more
Published on 26 April 2008 by Rivercassini
Unchallenging holiday reading
'A Metropolitan Murder' is fairly light stuff, easy to follow and doesn't really attempt to be more than it is. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2007 by E. Darby
Murder, intrigue and history!
I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would as I'm not a big fan of 'historical' fiction, but this novel is much more than that. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2005 by L. Gelder
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