December 21, 2013
A Steampunk Detective Story
It is 1867 but in a London where returned from manoeuvres aboard an airship, police detective Superintendent Richard Lyndhurst passes the Woolwich Mobile Bridge and has a steam-powered tricycle waiting to whisk him to Scotland Yard. Lyndhurst faces a challenge against which he often feels powerless: stopping the abduction of the daughters and wives of leading families in London political society. The first is taken by an iron man controlled by unknown force; others will fall victim to even more devious machines. Lyndhurst battles to determine the reasons behind the kidnapping and to move not only to prevent more but to identify what lies at the heart of the conspiracy and eliminate the men behind it.
The novel combines adventure and a well-researched detective story, blending people and places from real Victorian Britain with well-realised steampunk technologies and seeing how they alter the history our world knew. In Lyndhurst readers will find a detective with the engineering skills to solve crimes in a steampunk world, but dogged by the difficulties that are all too human.
