The Great Stink

There's no doubt Clare Clark modeled THE GREAT STINK after Dickens. Readers will be surprised at how well she succeeded. Clark's acknowledgments tell us quite a bit about how she planned her novel and where she got the title. One of her sources was THE GREAT STINK OF LONDON by Stephen Halliday about the great engineer Joseph Bazalgette's attempt to completely overhaul the sewers of London. Another, Marilee Strong's study of self-injury, A BRIGHT RED SCREAM, provided motivation for one of the novel's main characters, William May. A primary source, LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR, gave credibility to her other main character, Long Arm Tom. The story starts when a Russian soldier bayonets William May during the Crimean War. Robert Rawlinson, who was in charge of sanitary reforms during the war, took an interest in May and helped get him a job as a surveyor working on the Bazalgette's sewer project. The problem was that May was suffering from what sounds like battle fatigue or clinical depression. He began to cut himself to drive away the dark moods, and he used the sewers to do it. Despite his affliction, William May is a highly principled young man, and when a senior engineer solicits a bribe from one of the brick makers, May refuses to go along. The senior engineer sets out to ruin him. Clark shifts back and forth between May's dilemma and that of Long Arm Tom whose vocation will definitely remind you of Dickens. Long Arm Tom is a rat catcher. He sells them for a penny a piece to gin joints where "Fancies" bet on how many rats a ratter (a dog) can kill in two minutes. Tom adopts one of these ratters when her owner dies. She's one of the best ratters in the history of the sport. The fact that Tom makes a living in the sewer provides a tie to William May. Another Dickens character is the lawyer who takes William May's case when he is arrested for murder. Watch what she does with this guy's hands; she learned from the master. The scatological descriptions and the emphasis on cutting will bother some, but if you can get past this, this is a really entertaining read. You're never quite sure if William May will make it. Long Arm Tom and his dog Lady add a certain amount of warmth to a sometimes brutal novel.

What a refreshing change to read a mystery novel set in 1850's London which explores the underbelly of the centre of the British empire. Clare Clark has done a great amount of research on the London sewer system and the lives of middle and working class people. She cleverly provides details of the harsh lives many people endured in London around the 1850's and is able to combine it with an ambitious project to rebuild London's sewers and produce an enjoyable mystery novel with real characters. Clark provides a compelling cross-section of people and their lives from desperate, exploited soldiers in the Crimean War to engineers and surveyors working on a sewer project to the working class flushers, gangers and labourers desperately trying to eke out an existence to a lawyer trying to expose a corrupt boss to clear his client of a capital crime. The novel also explores the activity of rat baiting in a tough tavern to the routine of life in a harsh and brutal insane asylum. The author reveals the filth and pollution of 1850's London and the harsh and dirty environment that all people had to endure in every day life. The authorities were unsympathetic and it was every person for themselves and you could expect little help if you were in trouble. The novel is centred around two characters, the shell shocked, young Crimean War veteran and surveyor William May and old Long arm Tom, the tosh who makes an illegal living searching the sewers for valuables and catching rats to be killed by dogs in taverns for gambling purposes. Both are believable, sympathetic characters who are just trying to survive and make a living to support themselves and in May's case his family. Both end up being exploited and abused by forces more powerful than themselves. The author is able to convey an atmosphere such that you feel you are right beside these two characters as their lives entwine in unexpected and mysterious circumstances. Enough said, it is a wonderful book that took me on an enjoyable journey back in time.

The Great Stink is a mystery novel set in Victorian London. The main characters are William May, a sewer engineer suffering from shell shock brought on by combat in the Crimean War, and Long Arm Tom, who prowls the sewers for profit with his wonderful dog, Lady. Both get caught up in a corruption and murder scandel centered on the allocation of contracts for the building of the new sewer system. Author Clare Clark draws upon her historical expertise to paint the setting in rich detail. Instead of the usual aristocrats one gets in Regency and Victorian mysteries, her characters run the gamut from low to middle society, as the plot swings between the world of clerks and engineers at the sewer commission to that of the poor as they eke out an existence catching rats in the sewers for dog-baiting, drinking at taverns, and suffering in verminous tenements. Fortunately, Clark has the writing skills to turn her set piece into a taut, suspenseful mystery populated with compelling, believable characters and a story that draws the reader in and makes this novel hard to put down. This is a debut novel in which the author can take pride, and the reader much pleasure.

The sewers of mid 1800s London does seem an odd subject, but Ms. Clark has used it as a window into the repugnant reality and the Dickensonian vernacular of the times. The plot of the story is secondary to the historical portrayal of the city and the denizens who's lives were shaped by the disgusting caverns beneath it. Ms. Clark should surely be congratulated for the most realistic and riveting dialogs and monologues which could not be improved upon by anyone since Dickens. I can't wait for her next extremely well researched book.

I am giving this book 5 stars, because I found the story and the history of the London sewers so fascinating. I appreciate wonderful fiction that educates me as well as entertains. Summary, no spoilers: The is the story of William May, a soldier from the Crimean War. May has been psychologically damaged from that war, and the horrible treatment he received at the hospital afterwards. He is married to a very sweet, optimistic woman, but it's is hard for her to keep her mental and emotional balance with someone as severely disturbed and depressed as William. William, back from the war, is now a surveyor who is assigned the task of helping to redo the decrepit sewer system under the streets of London. The story features the sights (and SMELLS!) of this amazing underground world, and the book features assorted sundry characters and a murder to boot. I guarantee you will learn a lot reading this book. And if you are like me, you will find the first 4/5 so depressing, that you may want to consider a Prozac drip. Saying that, when I was done with the book I was glad I had read it. I applaud the effort and research that went into this book. It is not a fast read, but a worthwhile one.