The year is 1857, and in London a club consisting of the most brilliant minds of the day meets. Among the members are Isambard Kingdom Brunell,Charles Darwin,Charles Babbage and Joseph Bazalgette.The purpose of 'The Lazarus Club' is to discuss and act upon new ideas and inventions.
In the same period as the club meetings, a number of deaths occur of women who's bodies have been discovered with their hearts removed. Dr.George Phillips,a surgeon,(ah ha) becomes involved with both the club and the bodies.
My first piece of advice to the writer is not to use such a large number of real people in your books,but if you must,then do not make use of them in such a silly and unconvincing way. An instance - we have Florence Nightingale,who at one point in the story dons men's clothes and assists in digging up a body,before using her famous 'lamp' in a way that I rather doubt that she had ever thought to do.
The book began well I hasten to add,and I was quite enjoying the story,and then it went completely off track and the reader is left with a mish-mash of 'Indiana Jones' type action and plot.
This is the author's first novel - let us hope that we are not subjected to a second. ( )

In London in the 1850s, a secret society called the Lazarus club emerges, comprised of the most brilliant scientific minds of the age. Their goal is to discuss various problems and mysteries that arise out of their scientific explorations. In 1857, Dr. George Phillips is invited to join the club, by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who has just completed work on a massive ship, the Great Eastern. Pretty soon, however, dead prostitutes are washed onto the shores of the Thames, their insides removed, and Phillips is immediately suspected of the crime. The attempt to clear his name leads to a chase of a killer and a crime that could have international implications.

For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. Aside from a brief spell in the middle, which seemed to drag a bit, the plot moved at a rapid pace, and Pollard does a great job of bringing mid-19th century London to life. I talk a lot about novels where the cities described in them become characters themselves, and London here is no exception. You almost feel as though you’re wandering the dark, foggy streets of 1850s London with Phillips and Brunel. The plot is somewhat macabre, but the ending of this highly suspenseful novel had me glued to my seat. I also liked the brief appearances that Florence Nightingale made in this book.

There were only two other things I didn’t particularly care for: Phillips practically had to be handed the answer to the mystery, and the villain kept coming back to life in true bad-thriller fashion. But other than that, I really enjoyed this novel. ( )