It’s rare that I get to pick up a book just for the pleasure of reading—what little novel-related “me” time I have is devoted to reviews for authors I’ve come to know through Next Chapter or social media.
When I picked up By Gaslight (lying on a friend’s coffee table) and read the back flap, I had to borrow it. I was intrigued. Very.
LONDON, 1885. In a city of fog and darkness, the notorious thief Edward Pinkerton, the son of a famous detective, is determined to drag the thief out of the shadows. Adam Foole, haunted by a love affair ten years gone, has returned to London in search of his lost beloved. But when these two are drawn together in their search for answers, what follows is a fog-enshrouded hunt through sewers, opium dens, drawing rooms, and séance halls.
How could you not want to read Steven Price’s thriller? Obviously others were of the same mind, because the book (published by McClelland & Stewart, 2016) was a Canadian National Bestseller and on the prestigious Giller Prize Longlist.
Price has an enviable way with description—he writes eloquently, evoking vivid images.
It was a wide tunnel high and well ventilated and the waters moved at a steady drift, muscling past, scraping the filth and detritus of a world city against its bed.
(Can’t you just feel the layers of rubbish and smell the wretched stench of waste?)
This is far from a review, simply a suggestion: if you’re search for a good [long] riveting read, this book is for you. The one thing that takes getting used to: no quotation marks denoting dialogue. It’s not unheard of . . . but it is . . . weird.
Regardless, as the Toronto Star called it, it is a darkly feverish page-turner . . . or, even better, as Anakana Schofield advised, a poetic, persuasive pea-souper. Love it!
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