BOOK REVIEWS Courtesy of Beaverdale Books
‘The Somnambulist’
By Jonathan Barnes
Harpercollins
Pub Date: 1/1/09
$14.99
353 pp
Get ready to be swept away by this sinister, comical tale filled with delicious characters and an outlandish plot. “The Somnambulist” is impossible to put down, mixing humor and cynicism with macabre drama reminiscent of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” or “Frankenstein.”
The story opens in a seedy part of London during the 19th century. The narrator describes the very unusual death of a degenerate actor. Enter Mr. Edward Moon, a magician who has an unnatural ability to solve bizarre crimes. His assistant is a hulking, bald mute, known as “The Somnambulist.” Together they must not only solve this murder but also uncover and disarm the deeper coup threatening the entire city of London.
Joining Mr. Moon and The Somnambulist in this quest are Mr. Cribb, a man who travels backward through time; the Prefects, assassins who dress as English schoolboys and exchange witty banter; and the late poet Mr. Samuel Coleridge. The narrator himself is one of the cheekiest characters.
Jonathan Barnes is a wordsmith, sprinkling words like pertinacity, vertiginous and waggishness throughout the book as if they are commonplace occurrences in conversation. Don’t worry, you won’t need a dictionary; the prose is carefully crafted, so meaning can be easily gathered through the context. In fact, this book makes you feel cleverer just for having read it. — Review by Laura Flaugher
