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It s a highly compelling, immaculately written 19th-century murder mystery. --Independent on Sunday
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy.--The Guardian
A grisly period detective story with a light-hearted literary conceit.--The Times
An intelligent, gripping and beautifully written novel which sparkles with bibliophilic glee. --The Scotsman
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy.--The Guardian
Beautifully written..Shepherd has perfectly caught the tone of voice, ranging from the lawyer Tulkinghorn to Esther Summerson and Inspector Bucket, and describes the horrors of nineteenth century slums more candidly than any Victorian novelist ever could...an absorbing read. --Literary Review
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy. --The Guardian
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy.--The Guardian
A grisly period detective story with a light-hearted literary conceit.--The Times
An intelligent, gripping and beautifully written novel which sparkles with bibliophilic glee. --The Scotsman
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy.--The Guardian
Beautifully written..Shepherd has perfectly caught the tone of voice, ranging from the lawyer Tulkinghorn to Esther Summerson and Inspector Bucket, and describes the horrors of nineteenth century slums more candidly than any Victorian novelist ever could...an absorbing read. --Literary Review
A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting, as well as the ability to handle the difficult God's-eye-view narration with aplomb...you'll be guaranteed to enjoy. --The Guardian
Book Description
Tom-All-Alone's is a dark and gripping Victorian murder mystery, immersing the reader in a grim London underworld.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It seems entirely appropriate that on the day that marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Dicken's birth I bring you a review of a new book inspired by his body of work. Regular readers will know that I tend to focus primarily on horror, science fiction and fantasy but occasionally I like to read something that is a bit outside my comfort zone. I certainly don't read a huge amount of historical fiction but when I heard about Tom-All-Alone's I have to admit that I was intrigued. The premise of a mystery set in the mists of Dickensian London appeals and by the time I got to the bottom of page one and read "Night and day London moves and sweats and bawls, as riddled with life as a corpse with maggots", I was sold.
Interspersed throughout the main story there is a second narrative following the story of a young woman called Hester. The chapters she appears in detail her life with friends in the seemingly idyllic Solitary House. Through the course of the novel the author starts to slowly drip feed the reader how Hester's tale ties in with the case that Maddox is investigating.
Like Dickens there are many larger than life characters that that vie for your attention, all of them pitched perfectly and each memorable in their own way. Charles Maddox is still finding his feet in his role as a detective and the mistakes that he makes feel that much more real. He is young man driven to discover the truth at all costs.
Maddox has a great uncle who he shares a name with. Maddox Snr was a great ` thief taker` in his time but is suffering from the vagaries of old age. It is becoming increasingly obvious to his family and friends that his once razor sharp mind is beginning to fail him. One moment he is fine, the next his is violent and then suddenly almost catatonic. He endeavours to offer his nephew what little assistance he can but is dying by degrees. The scenes between the two men are particularly touching and very effective. The reader gets glimpses of the investigator the old man once was and the high regard that his nephew still holds him in. Reading the novel with 21st century eyes it is interesting to see how 19th century characters deal with a condition as debilitating as Alzheimer's.
It is only right and proper for a private investigator to have an arch-nemesis on the police force and in Maddox case this comes in the form of inimitable Mr Bucket of the Detective. It's a highlight to see how their relationship evolves throughout the novel.
It's always a pleasure to discover a writer whose work instantly clicks with you. I sincerely hope there will be further mysteries featuring Charles Maddox. The evocative setting, well observed characters and tantalising storytelling had me hooked from the very outset. The writing deftly brings to life all the sights and sounds of the metropolis, however grotesque they have the potential to be. The opportunity to delve into the dark underbelly of Victorian society is just too good to miss. Lynn Shepherd's London is a world of corruption, violence, and dark unpleasant secrets with a little blackmail thrown in for good measure. This is exactly the sort of story I'd like to see adapted for the screen. Actually if the BBC happens upon this review I'm thinking lavish adaption perhaps in time for next winter? Seriously, you'd be on to a winner.
Tom-All-Alone's is published by Corsair and is available in the UK now and will be published as The Solitary House in US/Canada on 1st May 2012.
Interspersed throughout the main story there is a second narrative following the story of a young woman called Hester. The chapters she appears in detail her life with friends in the seemingly idyllic Solitary House. Through the course of the novel the author starts to slowly drip feed the reader how Hester's tale ties in with the case that Maddox is investigating.
Like Dickens there are many larger than life characters that that vie for your attention, all of them pitched perfectly and each memorable in their own way. Charles Maddox is still finding his feet in his role as a detective and the mistakes that he makes feel that much more real. He is young man driven to discover the truth at all costs.
Maddox has a great uncle who he shares a name with. Maddox Snr was a great ` thief taker` in his time but is suffering from the vagaries of old age. It is becoming increasingly obvious to his family and friends that his once razor sharp mind is beginning to fail him. One moment he is fine, the next his is violent and then suddenly almost catatonic. He endeavours to offer his nephew what little assistance he can but is dying by degrees. The scenes between the two men are particularly touching and very effective. The reader gets glimpses of the investigator the old man once was and the high regard that his nephew still holds him in. Reading the novel with 21st century eyes it is interesting to see how 19th century characters deal with a condition as debilitating as Alzheimer's.
It is only right and proper for a private investigator to have an arch-nemesis on the police force and in Maddox case this comes in the form of inimitable Mr Bucket of the Detective. It's a highlight to see how their relationship evolves throughout the novel.
It's always a pleasure to discover a writer whose work instantly clicks with you. I sincerely hope there will be further mysteries featuring Charles Maddox. The evocative setting, well observed characters and tantalising storytelling had me hooked from the very outset. The writing deftly brings to life all the sights and sounds of the metropolis, however grotesque they have the potential to be. The opportunity to delve into the dark underbelly of Victorian society is just too good to miss. Lynn Shepherd's London is a world of corruption, violence, and dark unpleasant secrets with a little blackmail thrown in for good measure. This is exactly the sort of story I'd like to see adapted for the screen. Actually if the BBC happens upon this review I'm thinking lavish adaption perhaps in time for next winter? Seriously, you'd be on to a winner.
Tom-All-Alone's is published by Corsair and is available in the UK now and will be published as The Solitary House in US/Canada on 1st May 2012.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a good idea that doesn't quite come off. Using characters from both "Bleak House" and "The Woman in White", the author attempts to fashion a detective story that runs alongside the two classic novels - that is, she is not writing a sequel or a "prequel" but inserting her novel into the same time frame as the two novels she is attempting to emulate.Like the new Sherlock Holmes novel "The House of Silk", she deliberately uses themes that would never have been considered in Victorian times - this is fine but the overall impression is of a muddle. Maybe she is attempting to put too much in- such as the Jack the Ripper suggestion - certainly her display of her own knowledge is not always welcome and the contemporary asides are just an intrusion. Considering that Charles Maddox is supposed to be a great detective there is an awful lot that he misses or only latches on to when it is too late!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I realise I'm out of step with most other reviewers, but I found this book a major disappointment after the wonderful Murder at Mansfield Park. There is no doubt that Lynn Shepherd writes well and has the ability to conjure up the atmosphere of Victorian London. However I felt that in this book she tried too hard to pack in references to some of the greatest novels of that age and in so doing disrupted the flow of her own plot.
The main reference is of course to Bleak House, but to set oneself up for a comparison to Dickens and then not to include any of the fun and joyousness that lightens the tone of even Dickens' darkest novels seems a strange decision and one that didn't work for me. Again, as she did in Murder at Mansfield Park, Shepherd twists the characters and plot of Bleak House but this time in a way that really grated. In MAMP, she gave us the enjoyable character of Mary to replace those characters she had made unlikeable - in this novel, I found all the characters unlikeable. And the irritating omniscient narrator device, constantly dragging us forward to the present day to look back on Victorian London with an air of smug superiority, became a really annoying distraction as the book wore on.
The first half of the book meandered along without giving us a real idea of what the detective Charles Maddox was trying to investigate - was it the disappearance of his sister, the deaths of the babies in the churchyard, the Tulkinghorn connection? The second half was more focused and she did manage to pull some of the threads together at the end, but still left too much unresolved, presumably as a hook for a follow-up - a follow-up that I'm afraid I will not be avidly awaiting.
I hope that Ms Shepherd will soon allow her own voice to develop and stop relying on attracting the fans of the great fiction of the past. The quality of her writing and plotting (in MAMP at least) shows she has the talent and if she were to create her own world, I suspect it would be a good deal more satisfying than these skewed versions of our much-loved fictional worlds.
The main reference is of course to Bleak House, but to set oneself up for a comparison to Dickens and then not to include any of the fun and joyousness that lightens the tone of even Dickens' darkest novels seems a strange decision and one that didn't work for me. Again, as she did in Murder at Mansfield Park, Shepherd twists the characters and plot of Bleak House but this time in a way that really grated. In MAMP, she gave us the enjoyable character of Mary to replace those characters she had made unlikeable - in this novel, I found all the characters unlikeable. And the irritating omniscient narrator device, constantly dragging us forward to the present day to look back on Victorian London with an air of smug superiority, became a really annoying distraction as the book wore on.
The first half of the book meandered along without giving us a real idea of what the detective Charles Maddox was trying to investigate - was it the disappearance of his sister, the deaths of the babies in the churchyard, the Tulkinghorn connection? The second half was more focused and she did manage to pull some of the threads together at the end, but still left too much unresolved, presumably as a hook for a follow-up - a follow-up that I'm afraid I will not be avidly awaiting.
I hope that Ms Shepherd will soon allow her own voice to develop and stop relying on attracting the fans of the great fiction of the past. The quality of her writing and plotting (in MAMP at least) shows she has the talent and if she were to create her own world, I suspect it would be a good deal more satisfying than these skewed versions of our much-loved fictional worlds.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A triumph!
Most of the five star reviewers have already said what I would have wanted to, so I'll not repeat the praise already heaped on this fabulous author - just endorse it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Janet B
Good, but not great - borrowings from Bleak House
Being familiar with Bleak House, I approached the book with some trepidation (would it be disappointing precisely because of its links with Bleak House) and with some anticipation... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Keen Reader
'These streets are no cause for comedy, and know no tones but grim and...
It is 1850, and we are taken to the heart of Dickens' London, but it's a grim, dark, foul area that we are visiting, which is conjured up clearly for us, as we are warned when we... Read more
Published 2 months ago by L. H. Healy
Disappointed after reading good reviews
I'm an avid reader of historical fiction and this seemed to tick all the right boxes for me. I put a lot of faith in customer reviews and this book seemed flawless. Read more
Published 2 months ago by PR
Three-dimensional characters and a strong main/sub plots
I'm going to start by saying I haven't read Dickens' Bleak House (although for those of you interested, it does have it's own Wikipedia page where the synopsis, plot and characters... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Shazjera
Haven't enjoyed a book so much in ages
It's probably not necessary to have read Bleak House to enjoy this but if you have you will get so much more out of it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by caitlin
A BLEAK DICKENSIAN MYSTERY TALE
Tom-All-Alone's was one of the poorest, dirtiest, most squalid slums in 19th century London. Tom- All- Alone's (The Solitary House in the US editon) is the title Lynn Shepherd has... Read more
Published 3 months ago by MARIA GRAZIA
A real corker
I loved this book. Great if you know the Dicken's characters, because I found the minds eye picture you have of them adds a really full dimension. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sue
Same book, different titles
This is an enthralling book with a clever use of Dicken's characters. I was happy to see another book by this author coming out in May BUT, and I think this should be made clear; A... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs
This book will seriously encroach on your time! Brilliant read
I can only add my voice to the previous reviews - i note it gets five stars from everyone! Beautifully written, evocative, engrossing, thought provoking, daringly using characters... Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Cameron
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