Retrieved from: my library0743283945, 2005
Suggested by:
My Ratings: 6 Merit, 7 Interest, 8 Fun
Clever. Almost...no, definitely, too clever by far. There are some amusing bits here, however, and I did finish the book simply because I wanted to figure out if it really all comes together at the end. It does.
We meet Lucifer Box (prepare for Puns Ahead), secret agent to His Majesty's Government (HMG) in Edwardian England. Once the time period is established, it makes much more sense; I kept thinking it was Victorian London, but it's later.
Lucifer's cover is painting portraits, and it is doing just that where we first meet him. After painting his subject, he invites him to his Club for lunch and kills him after the first course. His henchmen (or -woman, in this case) removes the body and Lucifer continues to lunch. Soon thereafter he is drawn into a case involving missing scientists and the actually story begins.
While reading this is not exactly brain surgery, it is remarkably well-plotted. The funny thing is that, having finished the book and written it off as lightweight silliness, one looks back and realizes that it is better-written than most lightweight silliness. There is a plot, the plot hangs together, the tone of the book doesn't waver inappropriately, and the sardonic asides about everything from the hypocrisy of society to the genre of James Bond-ish stories is spot-on.
Here is a short list of character names, besides the hero's: Jocelyn Poop, Bella Pok, the Duce Tiepolo, Tom Bowler, Verdigris Sash, Mrs. Midsomer Knight.... If at least some of these anmes do not cause you to smile in amusement (if not howl with delight), then you probably are better off not reading this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment