The Pierced Heart is the fourth is the Charles Maddox Mystery series by British mystery writer Lynn Shepherd. I've enjoyed all of Shepherd's three previous novels: Murder at Mansfield Park, The Solitary House and A Fatal Likeness.
Each of her novels is based on a classic work of 19th century British fiction, re-imagined as a suspense-filled detective novel and a homage to the original author: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mary Godwin Shelley; and, in The Pierced Heart, Bram Stoker.
Her stories are capable of standing on their own, but are even more enjoyable for those familiar with the original tale, so much so that I am always eager to go back and read the original once again, for the sheer delight of comparison.
Her sleuth, Charles Maddox, prides himself on being a man of reason and science, even as her source material (other than Mansfield Park) pitches him into the middle of some decidedly irrational circumstances: Bleak House, Frankenstein, and Dracula. And Maddox's own life gradually reveals its own dark secrets.
Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus.
Click HERE to read the review from the Historical Novel Society web site.
Click HERE to read the review from the University of Stirling Gothic Imagination blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment