I was delighted to receive an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from the publishers to review. Please note this book will be published in the UK in February 2013 – so look out for it then – or better still pre-order it now.
Having read and enjoyed Lynn Shepherd’s previous novels Murder at Mansfield Park and Tom-All-Alone’s I anticipated it eagerly and haven’t been disappointed, from it’s wonderfully atmospheric opening to it’s thrilling conclusion.
It is 1850 and detective Charles Maddox – whom we first met in Tom-All-Alone’s, – and who is the great nephew of the Charles Maddox we encountered in Murder at Mansfield Park – is still living with his ailing great uncle. As his uncle seems to be slipping further away from Charles, a new case comes along which Charles soon comes to believe his elderly uncle may again be able to help him with. His client is the only son of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary the celebrated author of Frankenstein. Sir Percy Shelley and his deeply unpleasant wife Jane set Charles on the path of dark secrets and hidden papers containing the truths behind the terrible stories of the past. Mary Shelley’s arresting step sister Claire Clairmont, who famously had a love affair with Lord Byron – is also at the heart of the story.
More than thirty years earlier these famous young romantics led heady unconventional lives, selfish and often cruel they are portrayed as a pretty unpleasant bunch, their lives full of conniving betrayal. Through hidden papers and old letters we return to the early years of the nineteenth century, when Shelley was at the height of his reputation, to that famous time these fascinating young people spent in Switzerland, when Frankenstein was first conceived. When Charles comes across old papers of his uncle’s we meet again the other Maddox, thief taker whom readers may remember from Murder at Mansfield Park, in the story of events in 1814.
Like Tom-All-Alone’s, A Treacherous Likeness is a wonderfully atmospheric story, perfect winter evening reading. The dark, Victorian London streets rise up off the page with all their stinking grimness and dangers. Alongside the inns, brothels and polite parlours, which Charles passes through during his investigation, is the home that he comes back to with its odd collection of inmates. The house in Buckingham Street, where Charles’s great uncle lies virtually insensible, is also home to Abel, the elder Charles Maddox’s one time henchman, Billy a servant boy and Molly the mute, black maid who sometimes shares Charles’s bed.
I really like Lynn Shepherd’s writing, it’s intelligent and pacey, and the style of this novel, like her last is very authentic to the period. I know not everyone likes a modern omniscient narrator, but I do think it works well and allows the author to slot in pieces of information that would not have been possible had it been told from the central character’s point of view. The narrator in this novel stands at a distance of some 170 years from the characters, lending modern understanding to a nineteenth century world. This is a style of narration that readers of Dickens, Austen and other classic writers will be very familiar with. It serves to pull the reader right into the thick of the action, and I was hooked instantly, as I am sure others will be. I think I rather envy Lynn Shepherd her research, which has obviously been extensive, and must have been really fascinating. In A Treacherous Likeness the author has merged fact and fiction to produce a credible and hugely engrossing story. There is a great deal that is known about Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary and her step sister Claire Clairmont, but after such a passage of time there are of course gaps in that knowledge, and it is into these spaces that Lynn Shepherd has woven her story. Having read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein three times, I was fascinated by the premise of this novel, and in fact it has made me want to find out more about the lives of these young romantics.
I have feeling that this book will prove to be a big success for Lynn when it is finally published in February, I certainly hope so.
Thanks so much for the review, this sounds like an author that I will really like! I hope I can find her books on my side of the pond 🙂
Please note Tom-all-Alone’s is called The Solitary House in North America.
Please note Tom-all-Alone’s is called The Solitary House in North America.
Great review Ali. I know that we are looking forward to meeting Lynn next year when she will be visiting the JQ Bookwormers in Birmingham http://www.meetup.com/JQBookwormers/events/76394592/
Yes it’s an event I am certainly looking forward too.