By Gaslight is one of those books that looks like it's going to be wonderful and epic, especially when it's compared to one of my favourite books, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. What I got thought, was way too long, and took a long time to go anywhere. It was also difficult to read because of the formatting. I don't know if this is an issue from the publisher or a conscious choice from Price. i don't mind people removing speech marks but it does get incredibly tedious to need to read the same line three times because you can't tell if it's narration or description. It did diminish my enjoyment of the story. Overall, this book tries to be clever but doesn't achieve it.

3 Stars

As someone who only occasionally dips their toes into the sea of Historical Fiction; I'm not super well versed in what constitutes a good HF novel. What initially drew me to this was the cover, I mean its freaking gorgeous! The second was the comparison to The Luminaries and The Crimson Petal and the White, both stories that I enjoyed but had similar issues with.

Something that I find the Historical Fiction genre encapsulates well is atmosphere and poignant and lyrical writing and By Gaslight is no exception to that rule. There were several times over the course of the narrative were I felt the need to take a shower after the descriptions of the filth on the streets and the grease and smoke staining the characters skin and clothes. The characterisation and development of relationships throughout was absolutely phenomenal.

The reasons I failed to give this a better rating are some serious issues I had with pacing, I flew through the first and last hundred pages but struggled with the middle section; it felt like a lot of things were happening but there wasn't any real progression. There was also a few flashback sequences that I felt could've been shortened and their relevancy made more apparent and tied into the present plot earlier.

I felt unsatisfied after the novel wound to a close as there were several threads left dangling, threads that were prominent motivations in the beginning were swept aside and never examined or explained. Things I'd been theorising about for 500 pages never got resolved, I think you can understand my frustration.

There's one aspect that I am still torn on, the author's choice to remove all dialogue punctuation. There were sometimes were it worked really well as the characters had distinct speech patterns and phrase and word choices and other times were it interfered with my understanding of conversations occurring between two or more characters. It was a bold choice and I'd be intrigued to read more stories that experiment with it.

I loved this sweeping Victorian thriller, which is perfect for fans of The Crimson Petal and the White, and of Mr Dickens himself. Although a long book, I thought the author kept control of the narrative admirably never resorting to padding or waffle. The characterisation was superb, and I thought the mystery played out in suitably gripping fashion. A real hefty slice of historical enjoyment!

This was a book I was so excited about and was anxious to read and like for several reasons. It was likened to The Luminaries which was one of my favorite books in recent years (all 848 pages); the setting in 19th century London; the beautiful, eerie cover art. I was disappointed in By Gaslight. It seemed bloated and kept losing interest. I found when I put the book aside I started and finished several books, being reluctant to pick it up again but was determined to finish it.
A big problem was it skipping back in time and place just when I was getting interested in the vivid descriptions of the filth, squalor and the elegant mansions of London. I wished the back stories of Foole and Pinkerton were reduced to a few paragraphs so I could immerse myself in the Victorian London atmosphere. Perhaps the lengthy civil war section belonged in another book. I have no problem with a story going back in time, but these jumps were so unexpected and abrupt, and these chapters so long that it didn't work for me.

Pinkerton has come from America to find a man named Edward Shade, a con man and thief. Pinkerton's father was the founder of the Pinkerton agency, who before his death was obsessed in finding Shade. Pinkerton believes the key to finding Shade lies with a mysterious woman grifter whom Shade had loved years before in South Africa and has been rumored to be living in London. He meets up with an elegant gentleman , Foole, with connections to some unsavory characters who is also searching for Shade as well as cohorts of the mysterious woman. By most accounts the woman is dead and Shade died during the American Civil War. The search leads them through the foggy streets into upper class drawing rooms, streets of mud and filth interviewing hardened criminals, to a seance, and through the unspeakable filth of the London sewers.

I like a story with twists that I didn't see coming. Unfortunately I figured what became of Shade before Pinkerton did. There have criticisms about the lack of quotation marks and sometime commas. I was more bothered by new chapters talking about 'he' did this or thought that, and it was often a few pages before I knew if the subject of the chapter was Pinkerton, Foole or someone else. At the beginning of the book there was flash (criminal) slang of the 1800's underworld, and had to guess the meaning from context. I had only seen this in one other book but these words were translated. Also, I didn't care for or identify with any of the characters which I found unlikable, but probably liked some of the criminals better than Pinkerton.
There was much to admire in this book, such as the descriptions of the hazy, dark gaslight atmosphere, but thought a very good plot got lost or at least obscured in the lengthy back stories and the structure of the time jumps. I wanted to give it a higher rating, but I plodded along through the 730 pages.

This was an interesting read for me - and lost a star due to the one thing that irked me throughout - the lack of punctuation, especially for dialogue. Moving past that, the story of one man's quest to track down "the one that got away" is worth pursuing to the end (and its a long book).

London 1885: Billy Pinkerton - ".. a man without weakness, a man without pity .." - US Civil War veteran and son of the founder of Pinkerton's Detective Agency, is on the trail of a woman who is the accomplice of notorious criminal, Edward Shade. Pinkerton hopes to use this woman to lead him to Edward Shade, who has alluded his grasp, and that of his father's for some time. The woman's ex-lover, one Adam Foole, also uses Pinkerton for his own purpose which is as shady as the shadow Pinkerton is chasing.

The narrative alternates between the present, London 1885, and the past, told in flashback and in no sequential order. Not all is as it initially seems and we trudge the gas-lit streets of Victorian London in search of clarity to a secret that has a past betrayal at its very heart.

As mentioned, the lack of punctuation at times rendered that very good storytelling a little hard to follow, especially with a book of this length. The flashbacks and flash-forwards, some of which seem irrelevant and unnecessary at the time, eventually coalesce and slowly a tale is spun that links them together, and reveals a secret that has its roots firmly planted in events of the US Civil War.

Could this be labelled noir fiction ...? I was often reminded of the hero / nemesis catch and mouse game of Holmes and Moriarty, and where the lines of good and evil are often blurred. I wonder how the story would have panned out in two tomes rather than the one .....

This is the second novel by Canadian author and poet Steven Price. Set in the 19th century, it follows the stories of two men – William Pinkerton and Adam Foole – who are bound together by tales of a shadowy figure known, appropriately, as Edward Shade. Pinkerton is a famous American detective who is in London assisting Scotland Yard with an investigation into the death of a woman, possibly Charlotte Reckitt, whose severed head has been found in the Thames. He believes Charlotte has links with Edward Shade, an elusive criminal whom his father had devoted twenty years of his life to hunting down, without success. But who is Shade? A real person...a ghost...or just an obsession?

Adam Foole, a thief and swindler, has also recently returned to England with his two accomplices – the giant Japheth Fludd, and Molly, a young pickpocket. Foole has received a letter from a woman he once knew asking for help, but on his arrival in London he is unable to find her. Soon his path will cross with William Pinkerton’s; it seems that both of their fates are linked with Charlotte Reckitt and the mysterious Edward Shade.

By Gaslight takes us on a tour of the darker side of London as Foole and Pinkerton (separately or together) visit Millbank Prison, an opium den, a séance and the underground sewer system. However, there are long interludes set in South Africa and in America during the Civil War and these are essential to understanding the backgrounds to our characters and therefore to understanding the mysteries at the heart of the novel. These sections have quite a different tone from the London parts and, to me, they didn’t really feel as though they belonged in the same book; had the whole novel been devoted to the Civil War or had it been purely a Victorian murder mystery I think I would probably have been happier. This is just my opinion, though, and I’m sure other readers will love the variety of settings and changes in atmosphere.

By Gaslight is the perfect title for this book – not only are gaslights mentioned frequently, the whole novel (or the London chapters, at least) feels misty and murky and everything seems to happen either at night or in the fog and rain. Although most of the action takes place in 1885 and any long flashbacks are usually given their own chapters, eventually the borders between past, present and future start to blur, all adding to the sense of mystery and of facts being hidden or obscured.

The author has also made the decision not to use correct punctuation – commas are used sporadically and quotation marks not at all. Again, whether or not you will feel comfortable with this is a matter of personal taste; you could see it as a clever way of trying to immerse the reader more fully in the fogs and mists of the story or, like me, you could just find it annoying and distracting. I should add, though, that at no point did I actually struggle with it; I could always tell how a sentence was intended to be read and who was speaking to whom.

On the whole, though, this is an atmospheric and unusual novel and, despite the length and my reservations about the writing style, I never thought about abandoning it. It’s unlike any other Victorian novel I’ve read.

An atmospheric victorian detective story, featuring secrets and betrayal. A story that harks back to a Sherlock Holmes mystery, but so beautifully written, in a haunting and literary style. A vivid story line, intricate and a rewarding read. I think any one who enjoys a good literary story will enjoy this book, but of course readers of historical fiction will enjoy it tremendously,

'By Gaslight' has many good qualities and, for the persistent reader, it is worth persevering and allowing yourself to be fully immersed in this historical suspense thriller. Set in Victorian London, amidst the crime and deterioration of society, Price creates a story that lures the reader into a world that simultaneously entices and repels.
The plot is a dual narrative, which follows the two main protagonists, William Pinkerton and Adam Foole, two men on opposing sides of a London which becomes more familiar through the detailed descriptions and evocation atmosphere created by Price and it is woven into the imagination of the reader through the wealth of detail provided. There is no way to avoid being lulled into the sense of place with the invasive fog and the endless twists and turns of the crime-riddled streets of London in the 1880s. Coupled with the memories which take the characters back to the American Civil War and various events in other parts of America and South Africa, this is cleverly handled by the author as the reader is constantly taken on journeys between these places, experiencing all the events therein.
The characters are well-developed to the point that the reader cannot fail to engage with both of them, despite the fact that they are often on opposing sides - they both possess an equal measure of appealing and contemptible qualities, ensuring the reader feels a tug of war within themselves as to which side they are on. This shows some mastery by the author, ensuring we are constantly wrong-footed and not sure on which side we stand.
The plot itself follows the mystery of a suspected murder, a mysterious individual (who may or may not even exist) and a long-standing grudge which has lasted through two generations of the same family. William Pinkerton, an American detective, is following in the footsteps of his father, taking on his obsessive search for Edward Shade, a man of mystery; a man who might not even exist, but there is enough to keep these men searching for him, desperate to put an end to the mystery. Adam Foole is a man who has arrived back in London to meet up with a long-lost love, Charlotte, only to find that she seems to have been murdered. The lives of these two men become entangled in an endless cat and mouse journey through London to solve the mystery, and possible murder, on the trail of the culprit and to end this mystery for good.
The only downsides of this novel are the total length and some of the structural points of the narrative. The story does drag in parts and it sometimes lacks pace, which means the reader has to push themselves through at times. The sentence structures are weak in parts and this makes the writing a little disjointed on occasion, something the avid reader has to overlook and read through themselves. A lack of speech punctuation also causes confusion as to who is speaking and what is being said at times - it is possible to get past this and get used to it, but is does cause some invasion and forces the reader to alter their pace to adapt to the style.
Despite these things, the novel is worth a read and, for the plot and descriptive detail alone, the reader will not be disappointed.

Great book. Brilliant plot and main characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Very enjoyable.

There is a lot to like in this book. It tells the intertwined stories of William Pinkerton and Adam Foole, a detective and a thief, as they make their way through the streets of London in 1885. The setting is atmospheric and well drawn and I really enjoyed the depictions of the 'flash' life. The main problem for me, was that I felt there was just too much backstory. This is a long novel and the pacing was really slow at times, which isn't necessarily an issue, but when you think you are reading a mystery novel to then be given massive sections about the American civil war, things grind to a halt somewhat. The mystery in question was tied up in a pretty disappointing fashion and while I appreciate that the story is focusing on the lives of the two protagonists, my favourite sections dealt with Pinkerton and Foole investigating in their own separate ways. There are people who will love this book because of the detail and the back and forth narrative but for me, it just didn't work. Give me a civil war story or a London mystery - don't do both together.

Long, dark,complex novel set in Victorian London and featuring William Pinkerton, whose father founded the famous detective agency, and Adam Foole , a jewel thief. One arrives from America and one from America both pursuing different objectives which are inextricably linked.
The novel takes things at a languorous pace and slowly unfolds a multitude of characters and plotlines.
It is a very long and, at times , challenging story, but stick with it, this book repays handsomely the time expended on reading it. Although it has a Dickensian flavour the writing of Steven Price is far different and is very much his own, gritty but elegant. Thoroughly recommended.

This is an outstanding piece of historical fiction but it is one that demands commitment from the reader. It is a long read at over 700 pages long and it is not fast paced. It is a book that needs to be slowly savoured for its beautiful and atmospheric writing, so a reader needs to relax and settle into it. It is set in 1885, in a dark, smoke ridden, foggy London with its biting poverty, dirt, stink, gaslights, opium dens and the underbelly of the criminal underworld referred to as the flash world. William Pinkerton, agency detective, is the son of the now deceased Allan Pinkerton, overflowing with grief and unresolved emotions for his famous, but brutal father. He is in London to find the mythical and ghostly Edward Shade, a man that eluded his father in his otherwise successful career as a detective. There is no evidence that Shade exists and what there is suggests he is long dead. Adam Foole, a man who mourns a lost love, Charlotte, arrives in London from the United States on receiving a letter that she needs his help. These two broken men bring the spirit of the Wild West to London as their separate quests lead to the two men meeting and joining forces.

William's hunt for Shade has him seeking Charlotte, rumoured to know Shade. To escape William, Charlotte jumps off a bridge. A woman's body is discovered cut into pieces in various locations. It is identified as Charlotte, Adam is overtaken by the deepest grief and a need to know
what happened and who did it. He is supported by an adept street skilled young girl, Molly, and the huge man that is Fludd. They are able grifters and fit perfectly into London's flash world. In a story that provides a detailed background of William, Allan, Edward and Adam, we go back to diamonds in South Africa in 1874 where Foole meets Charlotte and her uncle, Martin, the Ohio hunt for John Reno by Allan in 1868, the brutal American Civil War, Allan's role in espionage, and Allan's deep and enduring relationship with the young Edward. This is a story of ghosts as William tries to get to know who exactly his father was, and Adam comes to understand more deeply the exact nature of Charlotte, a woman who inspired a life long love in him.

As the novel goes back and forth in time, we come to more closely observe the lives and characters of William and Adam, both lost and haunted men whose paths collide in London. The author paints a picture of a place and time that just drips with atmosphere and multilayered, complex characters that fascinate and engage the reader. Hanging over the proceedings in London is the larger than life, but dead Allan Pinkerton and the below the radar, mysterious and mystical Edward Shade. A wonderful, engaging and entertaining read. However, the author does play fast and loose with punctuation, for example, there are no speech marks. Personally, I did not find this a too great a hindrance and it did not prevent my enjoyment of the book. I highly recommend this book to those who like big books and a mixture of historical, mystery and adventure fiction that is beautifully written. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

This historical crime novel grips you from its' initial pages. You are immediately submerged into the grime, the dirt, the dregs, the noise, and the bustle of activity that was Victorian London. William Pinkerton is on a mission, he hunts Edward Shade, a man who officially does not exist and yet Pinkerton's father Allan was also obsessed with finding Shade. Since his father's death William is compelled to follow up leads and this is why he is in London, watching a woman who allegedly was acquainted with Shade. However, when a woman's dismembered body is found, Pinkerton becomes embroiled in the case whilst continuing his hunt.

By Gaslight is a demanding novel, it demands your attention owing to it's highly detailed plotting and it demands your focus upon its' structure, as you move about in time, jumping from the present to the past, looking at the Pinkerton's involvement in the American Civil War, William's involvement with the Pinkerton Agency and then you jump through time to the First World War and listen to William's remembrance of the past. You will find yourself immersed in Pinkerton's world, in Shade's life and you will want to remain with these characters for as long as possible.

A fascinating novel which will take you on a journey through time and place, with characters you truly care about and plotting which drives the novel along. It will leave you asking more questions and will spur you on to read further into the subject.

Obsession! Crime! History! Drama! This book has everything. Lots of detail, lots of time jumping, but still, the novel managed to drag me along in its wake. It had an almost Dickensian feel, and while the overarching mystery wasn't overly complicated in the end, the lead up to where it led was well worth the journey.

When I requested this book from NetGalley, I vaguely thought it would somehow be about Jack the Ripper. What I found, though, was an intricate, unique, if somewhat wordy story revolving around William Pinkerton of the American Pinkerton Detectives and Swell Mob Prince Adam Foole.
Pinkerton and Foole collide over the death of Charlotte Reckitt, one of them hunting her and one loving her. What begins as a seemingly simple story takes many twists and turns throughout to an ending that leaves room for a sequel.
Pinkerton has traveled to London to find Charlotte Reckitt, who he thinks has information about the mysterious Edward Shade, a man who apparently obsessed Pinkerton’s late father. Just as Pinkerton closes in on Reckitt, she jumps off a bridge. Days later, her mutilated body, minus its legs, shows up in pieces. At the same time, Foole returns to London from the U.S. after receiving a letter from Charlotte asking for his help. Despite her betrayal of him years before, he responds.
The story begins to get all twisty once Foole and Pinkerton have the same goal – find out who murdered Charlotte Reckitt. Betrayal, deceit, and loyalty all drive the major passions of this story, which neatly ties up all the loose ends around Charlotte Reckitt, Adam Foole, William Pinkerton, and Edward Shade. For now.
Price does a fine job of drawing compelling characters, and his story is fresh. I was reminded of Caleb Carr’s classic The Alienist a few times while reading this one. Pinkerton, while totally driven to catch the bad guys, is also smart and has a sensitive side. Foole, the slick con man, also has a conscience and loves deeply. The secondary characters, Molly and Fludd, are appealing for their devotion and loyalty to Foole. I want to read more stories about all of these characters! My only quibble with this was the length. As I was reading an Advanced Reading Copy, I expect there is room for some editing. My issue here was only my impatience to get on with the story because it was so good.
By Gaslight is a fine entry into the 19th century crime fiction class, and Pinkerton & Foole have the potential to become a Holmes and Moriarty should the author choose to write more about them. I hope he does. Highly recommended.

A story of obsession, murder, justice and revenge. A fabulous thriller about a Pinkerton and a Conman. I loved it. 5*