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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
King of Fiction, 3 Jan 2008
It was a great day for fans of quality fiction when Mccammon came out of retirement to deliver the splendid Speaks The Nightbird a couple of years back. Happily it wasn't to be a one-off as Mccammon has now given us this very worthy sequel.
Queen of Bedlam, like its predecessor, follows the exploits of young legal clerk Mathew Corbett. Now living in early 19th century New York he becomes involved in the hunt for a serial killer known only as the Masker. As with Nightbird this premise is merely a stepping stone to a far more complex tale which culminates in a brilliantly tense and gripping finale. Along the way Mathew becomes an employee of a fledgling detective agency, a post that draws him into the machinations of an unseen master villain, Professor Fell. This briefly-mentioned character is one of the most intriguing aspects of a very intriguing tale, hopefully one who will take a more prominent role in future episodes.
Mccammon came to prominence as a writer of all things fantastic - vampires, aliens, telekinesis etc - but his abandonment of such things has not, in any way, lessened his ability to grip the reader; far from it. This is a door-step of a novel but when you've finished it you'll be left wanting more.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtaking Whodunnit, 25 Jan 2011
Matthew Corbett returns for another tour de force from master story-teller Robert McCammon. He's 3 years older and much scarred from his previous outing in the marshes of Florida. Now we're in New York, 1702 and although the infrastructure of the fledgling city is progressing, we are left in no doubt that our young cleric faces exactly the same kind of bigotry and prejudice he faced 3 years earlier.
In Queen of Bedlam, there is a serial killer on the loose and apparently the only solution to his identity lies in the addled brain of an old lady residing in a mental home outside the city. Matthew is determined to find the killer and desperately tries to unlock the secrets contained in her mind.
This novel is written in the same style as Speaks the Nightbird, and the author really positions you in the early 18th Century with the language and attitudes of the main characters. Red herrings abound and subtle plot shifts all lend themselves to a marvellous story and satisfactory ending.
Can't wait for Mr Slaughter!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cracking Early 18th Century American Whodunnit, 14 April 2010
The sequel to Speaks the Nightbird, this is another good plot driven whodunnit set at the start of the 18th Century - this time in New York.
These are good entertaining novels, somewhere between thriller and detective stories, and were a good read.
Some problems I detected with the first book were perhaps more evident in this one. The writer does not quite carry off the feel for the period, and primarily I found this in the way the protaganist (Matthew Corbett) thinks. His thinking is thoroughly modern, with no good reason as to why this should be so other than the fact that he is very intelligent. To me that rang as false when coupled with the decision to have the language quite modern too.
The vision that one character has for New York also seems to be somewhat enlightened by our knowledge of its later importance. We read the character as visionary because we know she was right.
All in all though this was a cracking adventure.
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