This is presented as a turn-of the century adventure novel, our hero being one Lucifer Box, one of His Majesty’s secret agents, amongst other things. The style is that of ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’, a Ripping Yarn involving all sorts of weird and wonderful characters.

On the whole, Gatiss has done a fine job. It must have been difficult, getting a balance between adventure and tongue-in-cheek parody, on the whole favouring the latter. Mark Gatiss has a wonderful imagination, the climax being quite cinematic in its description and scale (I can see a film coming here). And I have never read such preposterous names! Everard Supple, Lady Constance Tutt-Haffenschafft, Major Stangeways Pugg…

The presentation is excellent, with a mock-dated cover (it makes the book look as though it is an old second-hand item, marked at six shillings) and illustrations not unlike those of Aubrey Beardsley.

— Amazon

Fun fluff that is similar to the first novels in the discworld series, all character driven. The downside to this is the characters are not quite fleshed out enough. Still this is an enjoyable read and I laughed in a couple of places. It’s worth getting, but don’t expect to want to read this more than once.

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