Black Butterfly

Lucifer Box is always a fun read. While not the best of three, still has a lot of hilarious moments and is a great ending to the trilogy. I hope Gatiss writes more from Box's younger years (though I won't hold my breath).

Black Butterfly is the last Lucifer Box novel, and Gatiss has pushed his setting forward again to the early fifties, making Box quite an old man. Having moved to the very top of the spy game, Box is on the verge of retirement, but he has one last adventure in him--and that adventure begins with his investigation into what he believes are mysterious circumstances surrounding an old friend's death. The plot takes a while to get going in this one, but once it does, it trips along fairly well. This entry in the series is lacking a bit in both the humor and the heart of the earlier two books, though the ways Gatiss plays with and deals with Box's old age are interesting and impressive. A slightly disappointing ending to the Box books, if show more perhaps only because the first two do what they do so very well, but absolutely worth the read if you've followed Lucifer through his first two adventures. show less

Third and final book in the Lucifer Box trilogy. Lucifer's career is winding down and the Royal Academy, of which he's risen to be its head, is being subsumed by MI6. After attending a funeral for a friend and having his advances spurned by Miss Beveridge, his secretary, he's off to drown his sorrows at the club. Unfortunately his plan is thwarted when an old politician, Sir Vyvyan Hooplah, goes off the rails and starts shooting the place up and steals Lucifer's car for his getaway. Giving chase, Lucifer finally catches up to him when the recklessly attempted escape ends badly and with just enough time to hear his dying words: "Le papillon noir". This event seems to match other recent deaths of prominent people so when Lucifer spots the show more last person that Hooplah was talking to in the club who has also appeared at the crash site Lucifer decides to follow him. He trails him to the airport, onto a plane headed for Athens and then, despite a friendly warning to desist, a train to Istanbul. Can Lucifer decipher the meaning behind Hooplah's last words and how they relate to the other death's in time for his retirement party?

I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy but felt somewhat let down by it's sequel so my expectations weren't too high going into this third outing for the spoofed up Bondian superspy. It probably lived up to what I was expecting and may have even exceeded them a little after getting past the long-winded set-up. The plot lies somewhere between the aforementioned Bond and an Austin Powers movie involving an enemy from Lucifer's past, a scouting Jamboree and a few exotic locations. While not laugh out loud funny there are a few smirks to be had along the way but if character names such as those already mentioned as well as Kingdom Kum, Whitley Bey and Melissa ffawthawte don't float your boat then it's probably best to steer clear. show less

This book was fun - what one would call a forgetable romp I suppose - but not as much fun as the first two. Lucifer Box should have stayed in the fin de siecle where his androgynous good looks and camp bisexuality fitted right in. An old Lucifer [with a son called Christmas what's more] is just wrong, especially when his old frineds start dying unexpectedly, killed off by the appallingly named assassin Kingdom Cum.

Mark Gatiss is openly gay himself so his gay love scenes are more convincing than his heterosexual ones and Lucifer is not altogether convincing as a straight Don Juan. Nor is the cold war his metier - I wish Mr Box had been left to particpate in the Great Game when the Empire was at its hieght, when Victoria was on the throne show more and Oscar Wilde was alive instead of being forced to grow old as others grow old... I suspect the vain Lucifer would have prefered that too. show less

probably the weakest lucifer box novel, which is a damn shame because gatiss' prose is definitely better here than in the other two books. the problem is that the narrative is over far too quickly, there's not enough intrigue and kingdom kum isn't that well developed a foil (unlike whitley bey who i think shows tremendous promise). but it's still the most entertaining romp this side of m j trow's "lestrade" novels and i truly hope he does manage a fourth...

'Now, Now, Delilah,' I said, sipping gingerly at the brandy. 'You're sounding petulant again.'
'Well,' she drawled, 'not like the bloody old days, is it? Stuck behind desk fiddling with paper-clips. I bet you'd give a year of your life just for a nice juicy assassination!'
I shook my head. 'Time to bring down the curtain, Delilah.'
But scarcely had the words left my lips when I felt a sudden heat on my cheek, and my smeary glass exploded as a 9mm bullet slammed into the bar.

For the third book in the series, we have skipped forwards to 1953 and the end of Lucifer's career. Lucifer has risen to be "Joshua Reynolds" (the pseudonym of the spy master in charge of the Royal Academy), but he is facing retirement and the Royal Academy is about to show more be absorbed into MI6. When an old friend dies in a car crash due to uncharacteristically risky driving, and a pillar of the establishment suddenly goes crazy, firing a gun in a crowded bar and stealing Lucifer's car, Lucifer follows a suspect to Istanbul and gets drawn into one last case.

It was quite funny, but I don't think the plot hangs together as well as in the first two books. show less

BLACK BUTTERFLY is the third Secret Service novel featuring tall, dark, suave spy about town Lucifer Box. Although it will come as a bit of a shock to readers of these books to discover that Lucifer has gotten old, fast approaching retirement. Good grief! Old age comes to Lucifer Box ... who would have believed it could ever happen. Worse still, this is billed as the final of the Lucifer Box novels which is particularly sad for those readers who have come to love the overly energetic lovelife, spycraft and general man about towning of the great Lucifer Box.

But retirement is coming, Queen Elizabeth II is newly established on the throne, and pillars of the English Establishment have started dying in bizarre accidents. Lucifer Box is the show more only man for the job - from the back streets of Soho, to the souks of Istanbul and the sun and sand of Jamaica, Lucifer must confront an enemy with roots in his own past, and discover who is behind the enigmatic (and not unattractive by any means) assassin Kingdom Kum. All at the same time that he must deal with the news that his young son - Christmas Box - wants to be a Boy Scout of all things!

Aging Lucifer may be. Pressing retirement may be. Burdened with unexpected parental responsibility as he is. Confounded by his offspring's somewhat conservative pursuits, Box can be relied upon when duty calls. And there are some duties that could only be resolved by a man of the eclectic tastes and experiences of Box. But this case, with the dangerous and desirable Kingdom Kum stalking his every move comes with a level of personal threat that Box would shrug off in his younger days.

Of course there's very very little that's serious in these books, and that's exactly why they are so fantastic. BLACK BUTTERFLY is as crazy, energetic and risqué as the earlier two books - all the action, suspense, thrills, spills, love and yearning, lust and sex, delivered in the same wonderful, slightly tongue in cheek fashion. I do confess a considerable feeling of sadness if this is, in fact, the last ever Lucifer Box book. I really can see how he could be called upon to perform yet more daring deeds - from his wheelchair in his dotage if necessary.

If you're a fan of crazy puns and tongue in cheek humour, and don't mind a little, shall we say unorthodox personal lifestyle choices, then BLACK BUTTERFLY and the two earlier books - THE VESUVIUS CLUB and THE DEVIL IN AMBER could be just the thing. You're certainly in for a bit of a fun treat. It might be best if you could read the books in order as they are set in vastly different time periods (Edwardian, the 1920's and finally the 1950's and you do get a bit of a feeling of the different time settings) but it's probably not strictly necessary if you're having trouble tracking down any of them. show less