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Dive into this edge-of-your-seat Victorian-era thriller, as London's Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field investigates a string of unspeakable crimes set off by the controversial publication On the Origin of Species. “Intellectually stimulating and viscerally exciting, The Darwin Affair is breathtaking from start to stop.” —The Wall Street Journal Now available, too: The Nightingale Affair, a new thriller with Inspector Field London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later—and only a block away—Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that the crimes are connected. Was Victoria really the assassin’s target? Or were both crimes part of an even more sinister plot? Field’s investigation soon exposes a shocking conspiracy: the publication of Charles Darwin’s controversial On the Origin of Species has set off a string of terrible crimes—murder, arson, kidnapping. Witnesses describe a shadowy figure with lifeless, coal-black eyes. As the investigation takes Field from the dangerous alleyways of London to the hallowed halls of Oxford, the list of possible conspirators grows, and the body count escalates. And as he edges closer to the dastardly madman called the Chorister, he uncovers dark secrets that were meant to remain forever hidden. A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick * A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book of the Year * A Reader’s Digest Best Summer Book * A Forbes.com Best Historical Novel of the Summer
Dive into this edge-of-your-seat Victorian-era thriller, as London's Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field investigates a string of unspeakable crimes set off by the controversial publication On the Origin of Species. “Intellectually stimulating and viscerally exciting, The Darwin Affair is breathtaking from start to stop.” —The Wall Street Journal Now available, too: The Nightingale Affair, a new thriller with Inspector Field London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later—and only a block away—Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that the crimes are connected. Was Victoria really the assassin’s target? Or were both crimes part of an even more sinister plot? Field’s investigation soon exposes a shocking conspiracy: the publication of Charles Darwin’s controversial On the Origin of Species has set off a string of terrible crimes—murder, arson, kidnapping. Witnesses describe a shadowy figure with lifeless, coal-black eyes. As the investigation takes Field from the dangerous alleyways of London to the hallowed halls of Oxford, the list of possible conspirators grows, and the body count escalates. And as he edges closer to the dastardly madman called the Chorister, he uncovers dark secrets that were meant to remain forever hidden. A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick * A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book of the Year * A Reader’s Digest Best Summer Book * A Forbes.com Best Historical Novel of the Summer
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
About the Author-
Tim Mason is a playwright whose work has enjoyed numerous productions in New York and California. Among the awards he has received are a Kennedy Center Award, the Hollywood Drama-Logue Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Rockefeller Foundation grant. In addition to his dramatic plays, he wrote the book for Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, which appeared on Broadway and is produced nationally every December. He is the author of one young adult novel published in 2009. The Darwin Affair is his first adult novel.
Reviews-
March 15, 2019 The real-life Victorian police detective who was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' Mr. Bucket serves as the main character in a fast-paced historical mystery.Although this is Mason's debut novel for adults, he's an accomplished playwright. Those skills are evident in the crisp dialogue and well-structured scenes of this book. It begins with a bang in 1860 as Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field, assigned to guard Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during a public appearance, witnesses an assassination attempt. The shooter, who's arrested, is mentally ill, but Field quickly begins to suspect the man is just a tool of a conspiracy--one connected to the controversy over the new ideas of the naturalist Charles Darwin. Field's determined pursuit of the truth is sometimes snagged by his celebrity; Dickens fans, including some in the royal family, insist on calling him "Mr. Bucket" and confusing the fictional policeman with the real one. Field persists, however, plunging into a dizzyingly complex plot that takes him all over London and off to Germany. The cast of characters teems with satisfyingly despicable villains, many of them based on real aristocrats and scientists. The most villainous, however, is the memorably terrifying Decimus Cobb, a former choirboy-turned-Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter. Countering Cobb and the other bad guys are the earnestly heroic Field, his resourceful wife, a kidnapped butcher's boy, and Prince Albert, who gets a touchingly human portrayal. There are cameos by such famous figures as Karl Marx, Dickens, and, of course, Darwin. With many grisly murders and many shocking surprises along the way, the book rockets toward a last dark twist.Careful research, a driving plot, wry wit, and compelling characters make this a most entertaining read.
COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from April 22, 2019 Mason, author of the YA novel The Last Synapsid, makes his adult debut with an audacious historical thriller. In 1860, Chief Det. Insp. Charles Field, the inspiration for Inspector Bucket in Dickens’s Bleak House, is part of the added security force for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert after several assassination attempts. One day, Field is guarding the route the royal couple’s carriage is taking through London when he spots 18-year-old pickpocket Stevie Patchen, who appears to be holding a weapon. Field tackles Patchen, only to realize that the youth was a decoy. The actual gunman, Philip Rendell, a former bookkeeper, is able to fire only a few stray shots at the carriage before he’s apprehended. In the ensuing confusion, someone cuts Patchen’s throat and removes one ear, leading Field to suspect a conspiracy. The intelligent plot features prominent figures of the time, including Karl Marx, who may have a link to Rendell, and Charles Darwin, whose heretical theory of evolution has unsettled some very powerful men. Wry prose and vivid period detail help make Mason’s speculations feel plausible. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman.
Starred review from May 15, 2019 Detective Inspector Charles Field (widely believed by fellow Londoners to be the inspiration for Charles Dickens' popular Inspector Bucket) hunts the Chorister, a Faginesque killer determined to prevent Charles Darwin's controversial theory from destroying Britain's social order. While coordinating security for Victoria and Albert's latest public appearance, Field intercepts an assassination attempt stinking of conspiracy. His suspicions are confirmed when the would-be assassin and the pickpocket he hired to distract police are both found with their throats slashed and a single ear removed. Their killer's trademark mutilation leads Field and his partner to the murder of a student who claimed to overhear his Oxford dons plotting against Darwin, and, when they track the Chorister to a scholarly debate on evolution, Field's partner is killed. As the vengeful, determined Field closes in, the conspirators attempt to change their plans. But the Chorister refuses to be called off, launching an ambitious plot against the royal couple that hinges on his ragtag gang of terror-motivated criminals and on Tom Ginty, a young butcher's apprentice whom the Chorister has molded into a deadly disciple. Mason's Dickensian London, layered with gritty, horror-tinged period details and the imaginative interweaving of Typhoid Mary and the underworld's grave-robbing industry, provides a rare time-traveling experience for historical-mystery readers. The novel shares the edgy appeal of Caleb Carr's The Alienist (1994) and Louis Bayard's Mr. Timothy (2003).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
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