By Gaslight

Following detective William Pinkerton and shadowy underworld character, Edward Shade, “By Gaslight” dives into Victorian England. At 700 pages, it doesn’t just dive, it lolls at one end of the tub with a thin trickle of hot liquid running in until the hot water heater has been depleted and the entire tub has gone ice cold. Given the extreme (!!!) number of references to soot, grime and dirt there’s a hefty ring around that tub as well.

I don’t necessarily object to 700+ pages. I’ve read and enjoyed many similarly hefty door stops before. The lack of punctuation especially quotation marks she said, also isn’t a disqualifier. And I’m all for atmospheric! The author clearly can write a beautiful sentence, polished to a show more glorious shine. (Not so enthusiastic when 'atmospheric' is shorthand for repetitive and florid descriptions. Remove at least half of the endless recitations on soot, dirt, fog, mist, coal dust, etc and the book comes down to a more manageable 400 pages or so.)

What I do find so disappointing is that -- having stuck through the excessive length, wonky and intrusive punctuation, and ceaseless descriptions of the same ol' grimy fog -- we're left with a 'meh' ending, telegraphed well in advance. Others seem to be much more taken with this one than I. You may find it a delightful frolic in an English spring-fed pond. Just don't say I didn't warn you when the fog and grime roll in. (2.5 stars out of 5) show less

It was a .36-calibre Colt Navy and in Chicago he kept it the way some other men kept secrets: it was the first thing you saw. You saw a gun and there was a man with it like he was on retainer and first the gun said hello and then the man nodded and said hello too.

William Pinkerton is the son of the famous detective agency's founder and a fearsome detective himself. With his father dead, he's trying to find a man his father couldn't; the mysterious thief known as Edward Shade. He's come to London because he's heard there's a woman there who was once Shade's associate.

Adam Foole, a small man of mixed heritage, arrives in England with his small crew of grifters. He's received a letter from a woman he once loved, asking him to come as she's show more being hunted by a Pinkerton detective. When he arrives in London, he discovers that she's been murdered and so he seeks to join forces with Pinkerton to find her killer.

By Gaslight is a Victorian novel in all the best ways. It's full of the stinking atmosphere of Victorian London and the novel is one that is simultaneously page-turning and taking its time. There are long digressions into both men's pasts, but as they are exciting pasts and shed light on their motivations as the novel moves forward, it never feels like lost time. Steven Price immerses the reader in the complexities of both men's lives, so that even when they are in direct conflict, one can't help but hope for the best for both men. The novel is also Victorian in its large cast of colorful characters, from spiritualists to child pick-pockets to Civil War spies. The writing reminds me of Mary Doria Russell's Doc in its ability to create warm, breathing characters. It wears its length lightly and I was sorry to have turned the last page. show less

Considering the dismal, dark, dank, dingy London much of this novel inhabits, it might seem strange to describe the writing as luscious... but luscious it is. Price is poet & what lovely prose he crafts. A sweeping, brooding mix of historical mystery & thriller, it fully fleshes out histories of its two main characters & their strangely-intersecting, criss-crossing lives. There is so much packed into the many pages that I was fully immersed in the story, the world, & the characters the entire time. To that extent, it reminded me very much of reading Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch -- a long, layered story, beautifully written. By Gaslight carries the same features, even though the tales are distinctly different. By story's end (not show more epilogue), Price has given you a lovely and unexpected conclusion. Well worth the read & highly recommended. show less

William Pinkerton, American detective, is in Victorian London chasing down the notorious criminal, Edward Shade. Pinkerton believes Shade to be both the criminal his late father Allan Pinkerton could never catch and a man who worked for and then betrayed his father during the American Civil War. Adam Foole is a con artist in London searching for his lost love, Charlotte Reckitt, who he believes to be in danger. Pinkerton is also seeking Reckitt as his last chance to find Shade.

Pinkerton and Foole are driven by injustices, mistakes and losses from their past, but both have an imperfect understanding of what happened which colours their perceptions and their plans to resolve their open wounds. As their lives slowly collide they both show more realise that what was black-and-white is now shades of grey.

The author paints Victorian London in detail and from various aspects - geography, culture, the lives of rich and poor, the criminal underworld - but always in muted colours shrouded by the ever-present fog. This is a book of unrelenting darkness with few lighter moments. The ending gives release for Pinkerton, but we are left wondering about the other characters we have become invested in, even liked - Reckitt, Foole and his accomplices, Molly and Fludd - which leaves us a little short-changed.

The book begins slowly but gathers pace to an exciting set piece climax. Recommended. show less

Thanks to Goodreads and Penguin Random House for a free copy of By Gaslight!

Okay. Combine the writing styles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. Add a bit of a Western. Add the American Civil War. Two incredibly complex characters to tie everything together. Imbue it with incredibly gorgeous, atmospheric, poetic writing. And you will end up with a shadow of what By Gaslight is like.

This is an incredible book -- one that demands your attention and steals your mind. I feel like I could reread this over and over, vanishing into the Victorian London gloom, and still pick up on new things that I hadn't realized.

Another experience: looking up information on the book and author after reading, seeing the piles of drafts, the show more outlines, the tidbits about real characters that inspired the book. I know logically that all books take an incredible amount of effort to bring from idea to print. But does it ever show here.

Highly recommended. show less

By Gaslight by Steven Price is an atmospheric victorian mystery with an intriguing premise and fascinating characters. William Pinkerton, son of the namesake agency’s founder and quite famous in his own right, pursues a criminal who eluded his father; the notorious Edward Shade, a man whom many think dead and some think doesn’t exist at all. The key to picking up Shade’s trail may be Charlotte Reckitt. Pinkerton and English gentleman Adam Foole are both pursuing her for their own reasons. Along with Foole’s giant accomplice, Flood, they search the gaslit corners of London from its highest echelons to the lowest imaginable locales for clues to Charlotte’s whereabouts and fate.

By Gaslight is heavy on the atmosphere. Price’s show more background as a poet is on ample display with lyrical and beautiful phrasing throughout. The story is filled with descriptive and memorable language both of place and of character. The narrative bounces from the search in 1880s London to the American Civil War 20 years earlier. The time spent in the civil war gradually shines more light on Pinkerton, as well as Shade, lending greater understanding of the events of 1880.

The plot moves doggedly forward as clues propel the characters together and apart and gradually shine light on the central mystery. The mystery is as much who is Edward Shade and what is he to the Pinkertons as it is where might he be. There is almost an excess of language with so much time spent on descriptions that the plot can at times suffer and makes the book feel overlong. One nagging thing for most of the book was that the obsession by both Pinkertons with finding Edward Shade seemed to lack sufficient motivation. This lack balances throughout on the knife’s edge between intriguing and annoying, with a little too much time spent on the latter side. In the end, Price manages to weave all the various threads together into a satisfying and thought-provoking conclusion.

Price has a knack for uniformly interesting characters both major and minor. Charlotte Reckitt may be the most interesting, and perhaps tragic, character of all.

The audio version of the book is narrated by John Lee who does an outstanding job with the material. He brings to life the lush descriptions and makes each character distinctive and easy to recognize. The voices for the Pinkertons didn’t sound very midwestern American, but I’m not sure what an 1860s or 1880s midwestern accent really sounded like. Lee added to the enjoyment of the material, which is an important factor given that the audio is nearly 24 hours long. His pacing and accents added to the mood and mystery of the material.

Fans of victorian mysteries and lush, descriptive language will enjoy this book.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book. show less

William Pinkerton, son of the founder of the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency, is in London in 1885 hunting for a man his father never managed to find. Edward Shade is a famous thief but virtually undetectable, never having been caught. William has a lead through Shade's one-time lover, Charlotte Reckitt, but Charlotte eludes him by jumping into the Thames River. When her body turns up in multiple pieces in various parts of London, Pinkerton thinks all is lost. Then Adam Foole who wants to find Charlotte's killer contacts him and the two men pair up though neither trusts the other. Foole is as much a thief and conman as Shade ever was.
The main story follows the murder of Charlotte and the subsequent happenings but meanders back and show more forth in time with vignettes of both Pinkerton and Foole. Much of Pinkerton's story is based on history though the rest is fiction. The author captures the time period well. The action moves from London, South Africa, Chicago, the Wild West, and the Civil War. Edward Shade, the man Pinkerton is chasing, was once a member of his father, Allan Pinkerton's, force in the American Civil War. Both the son William and Edward Shade are greatly impacted by the elder Pinkerton's views toward them and what each of them subsequently thinks of each other.
The author is an acclaimed poet in Canada, and his writing definitely displays a lyric flow of words. This is a long book, over 600 pages, but the writing is brilliant. I did think some of it could have been cut out, but then later I'd find why that piece was needed to make the story whole. It's a complex story, peopled with a diverse cast of characters. Each is fascinating in their own way and add much to the book.
The author made a stylistic choice to use minimal punctuation. Dialog is not set off by quotes, for example. It took me a while to get used to, and I'm not sure I was ever really comfortable with it. It's a conceit that didn't aid reading in my opinion; I can only imagine it had something to do with his style of poetry.
Still, this is a masterwork. In some ways, it reminded me of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin without the fantastical elements. I'd take a half star off just because of the punctuation choices, but this is a book I'll think about for a long time. show less