The Secrets of the Lazarus Club (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

If ever you're in need of a good book to while away an afternoon in front of the fire, this could well be it. The story twists and turns taking you on a journey though Victorian London and beyond whilst you get to know the very likeable main character, Dr George Philips. He rubs shoulders with some of the greatest men and women of the age and fits in credibly with the elite members of the Lazarus Club. From mutilated corpses to Victorian style 007 boat chases, this book has it all. It keeps you guessing right to the end as to `whodunnit' and throws up surprises all the way.
A feisty Florence Nightingale adds a memorable female presence to the story and a hint of romance in an otherwise dark and brooding situation. For anyone with a penchant for gruesome murder, clever plots and fast action-hero paced stories, this will certainly do the job.

Set in 1857 and seen through the eyes of surgeon Dr George Phillips, The Secrets of the Lazarus Club has to be one of the most gripping books I've read in a long while. It opens with a fantastically gruesome attempt by a waterman to retrieve a mutilated female corpse from the Thames, one of many prostitutes to be found with the same horrific wounds. Those of a delicate constitution may falter at the prologue, so good is Pollard's descriptive of the filthy river and festering body.
Phillips finds himself in the company of the great engineer Brunel, who, having almost completed his ship, the Great Eastern, is inquisitive to learn more about the inner workings of the human machine, and Phillips is just the man to assist him. He is also just the man whom the police suspect is behind these mutilated bodies.
And so, Brunel issues the doctor with an invite to the Lazarus Club, a secret gathering of the most forward-thinking men of the age. In come Darwin, Russell, Bazalgette, Brodie, Babbage and the fantastically mysterious Ockham, all keen to share their own discoveries and learn of others. Soon Phillips realises that not all of the secrets of the Lazarus Club are in the pursuit of honest achievements, and he finds himself in the middle of a very murky plot. The story has many twists as Phillips attempts to clear his own name and put right a broken promise.
Florence Nightingale has been beautifully written into the story, she is feisty and strong, but still retaining a brilliant wit and an ability to sense the danger that Phillips is in. Her infamous lamp is put to a macabre use in the novel too!
Phillips' character is intriguing, the decisions he makes are not always the ones you are expecting. You get a great sense of atmosphere in the story; the streets, the smells, the hugeness of Brunel's ship and the engineering achievements both big and small! There were moments that made me laugh and moments that made me reel #brace yourself when you get to the old mill# but the real joy is in how Pollard has managed to weave into his great novel so many historical figures and still retain believability and excitement on this level. This is his first novel, and I for one can't wait for his second.

Wow what an interesting book and "rip-roaring adventure". It's a book I read about a while back but when I went to buy it, it was out of print. A new edition (with the new title) was published last August so I snapped it up. As it happens I have since come across the audio book so it was the audio that I ended up listening to and the narrator did a cracking job. It was funny though as he voiced one of his characters exactly like Harry H Corbett from Steptoe and Son, which made me laugh. There are all kinds of real people in this book as well as fictional characters - Darwin, Faraday, Babbage, Brunel and other members of "the club" but also Florence Nightingale, and there are lots of well known phrases used in this book but as if for the first time or quite literally, "ship shape and Bristol fashion", "Ockham's Razor", "the shirt off his back", etc. No one is quite what they seem, the bad guys are not always the bad guys and the plot has many twists and turns before the end. I liked George Philips the doctor, but I also liked Ockham quite a lot, he was a very interesting character indeed! There's a nice blend of fact and fiction in this book which I enjoyed very much. 4.5 stars

Book reviewed 24 Feb 2010