The Lamplighter

Anthony O'Neill displays his great gift for story-telling by transporting the reader back to 19th Century Edinburgh. "The Lamplighter" conjures up images of granite tenement blocks, steep steps and twisting alleys. It is easy to lose yourself in this smokey city with its fog and dimly lit streets. The introduction of a young girl - Evelyn, sets up an aura of intrigue. The action then switches to Chief Inspector Groves who is trying to solve several murders in the city. The murders are savage and inexplicable but Groves goes about his business with the typical doggedness of a 19th Century policeman. The unlikely partnership of Canavan (a nightwatchman at a cemetery) and McKnight (a professor at the University) uses science and psychology to try to solve the murders. It is interesting to compare progress in the cases between methodical policework and imaginative theories. It reminded me of Sherlock Holmes versus Inspector Lestrade. Anthony O'Neill's background descriptions of the seedier side of life in 19th Century Edinburgh had me peering through the gloom and choking on the smoke. The finale is a terrifying flight through falling beams, Gothic buildings and bas-reliefs - reminiscent of the horrifying descriptions by HP Lovecraft. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it is intriguing and spell-binding,with more twists than the alleyways of Edinburgh.

this book is awesome,I enjoyed it very much,its fresh and horrible and very descriptive.I love the author's words and vision. I'm not going to tell the story of the leerie,just read the book and find yourself lost in their world looking for a light in the darkness.....great story,wonderful ending!!!!!

It is not often that one picks out what appears to be an interesting work of genre serial killer suspense and discovers that the author has made a real effort write much more that simple, entertaining fair. In fact, I'll start right out by warning the reader that, if you are looking for lots of blood and bits, this is not the book for you. Instead, it is something else entirely.Set in late Nineteenth Century Edinburgh, the surface story is about a series of catastrophically violent crimes that happen so quickly that witnesses are unable to describe the killer. Two groups of investigators are drawn into the crimes. The police are involved, of course, in the person of acting Chief Inspector Carus Groves. He is a man whose experience is limited to mundane crimes, and whose imagination is limited to a suspicious and self-centered nature. The other team consists of Thomas McKnight (ex-professor of logic and metaphysics) and Joseph Canavan an ex-graveyard watchman. Groves is a tumult of action, often pointless, and a stream of suspicions that get in his way more often than not. He is driven by his desire to succeed in a truly notable case, which will be a fitting cap for his memoirs. McKnight and Canavan, representing both doubt and belief, carry their research out in the ethereal world of the mind. The murders become a metaphor for the nature of the creative imagination and the power of both the mind and the spirit.In between these two is Evelyn Todd, a young woman whose past is marred by a dark secret. One that ties the victims together in a strange cabal that has echoes the religious brainwashing of the past few decades. Suspicion falls on her, even though the crimes are bestial, and clearly beyond her capacity. There is no question that she, and her dreams, are somehow central to the mystery, but each investigator sees the truth though a glass of his own making.The real truth, if one may call it that, is far stranger than anyone's suspicions. The players re-enact a Dantesque journey into the imagination, in search of a redemption that comes unexpectedly, much as the murderer did. We are treated not simply to a murder mystery, but also to a wry and unique vision of the nature of evil. O'Neill does this in such a fashion that the intellectual dialogue never bogs down the narrative pace, and with a fine sensitivity to the power of language.

This is a wonderfully thoughtful and atmospheric novel - mindbending and genre-bending. There are philosophical dialogues that may challenge some readers, but overall it's a very fluid and exciting read, and much more "human" than you'd expect for a book with so many gruesome scenes and such groteqsue imagery. The author doesn't forget to buttress his outrageous story with authenticity, and exhibits a welcome ambivalence about good & evil.

In 1886 Edinburgh residents become frightened when a series of brutal murders occur and an eerie grave-robbing incident happens. The brass assigns Inspector Carus Groves to solve the case. Carus is a sanctimonious egotist writing his memoirs every evening, but turning the accounts into more of an autobiographical fiction piece than a biography. He sees himself as a hero on adventurer rather than a plodding cop though on this serial killing case he has doubts about himself.Retired due to age, Edinburgh University Professor of Logic and Metaphysics Thomas McKnight and his Irish friend Canavan, fired as the watchman of the cemetery where the grave robbery occurred, begin their own inquiries. The duo searches for a seemingly supernatural person who apparently tore an adult into pieces. The clues lead to publisher assistant Evelyn Todd, who returned to her home city where two decades ago she lived as a Dickens poster girl orphan. She knows too much detail about the crimes so McKnight and Canavan try mesmerism, Freudian psychoanalysis, metaphysics, and other isms seeking her link to the terror of the night.The atmosphere of a terrorized Edinburgh will be felt by the reader once the prologue is finished and the tale moves forward to 1886. The story line grips the audience as the reader compares the two investigations, but wonders if the culprit is supernatural or human. The cast is cleverly drawn to add depth to the tension while showing the foibles of the lead players. Fans of historical suspense thrillers where the tension just keeps growing will want to read Anthony O'Neill's terrific tale but remember to keep the lights on.Harriet Klausner