The Vesuvius Club

I expected more from this book somehow. The writing is witty enough and there are puntastic names aplenty, but for some reason the whole does not equal the sum of its parts.

Gatiss is a good writer (witness his Dr Who episodes and The League of Gentlemen) but this falls into the category of ‘Could do Better'.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I'm only familiar with Gatiss' work on the BBC series Sherlock so I'm not all that familiar with his humour or writing styles. However, this book ended up being very aligned with my interests - Lucifer Box is just the right amount of snarky to entertain you without being annoying, much likes Holmes himself. The only problem I had was that none of the other characters (perhaps apart from Charlie Jackpot) were that memorable. When the mystery begins to reveal itself towards the end of the book, I had a hard time remembering who was who by name and I read this in only a few days. This book also starts out more or less historically accurate for it's setting (late 1800s/early 1900s) but then it delves into more science fiction with the opium zombies and a steam-powered bomb contraption, as if Gatiss kind of forgot what he had already set up and decided it needed more excitement.
That said, this was the fastest I've read a book in a long time - not because it was an easy read, but because I had a hard time putting it down, it was so enthralling and entertaining. I hope that the next book lives up to the standard this one set for me.

This is a failed attempt to create a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Oscar Wilde, with a dash of macabre to add spice. Gatiss is not up to the job, overreaching himself on all four counts, but most especially the Wildean aspects. It reminds me of an over-cooked, over-spiced cake, sickly to the palate and making one sick afterward. Utterly dreadful.