rather like an extremely naughty epsiode of Wild , wild west- or maybe closer to Wilde, Wilde West (as in Oscar) ( )

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I'm only familiar with Gatiss' work on the BBC series Sherlock so I'm not all that familiar with his humour or writing styles. However, this book ended up being very aligned with my interests - Lucifer Box is just the right amount of snarky to entertain you without being annoying, much likes Holmes himself. The only problem I had was that none of the other characters (perhaps apart from Charlie Jackpot) were that memorable. When the mystery begins to reveal itself towards the end of the book, I had a hard time remembering who was who by name and I read this in only a few days. This book also starts out more or less historically accurate for it's setting (late 1800s/early 1900s) but then it delves into more science fiction with the opium zombies and a steam-powered bomb contraption, as if Gatiss kind of forgot what he had already set up and decided it needed more excitement.
That said, this was the fastest I've read a book in a long time - not because it was an easy read, but because I had a hard time putting it down, it was so enthralling and entertaining. I hope that the next book lives up to the standard this one set for me. ( )

What to say? Lucifer Box is full of himself. Really full of himself.
The story is a bit of a romp, featuring zombies controlled by purple morphine, a chase through the streets of London and into a graveyard, a trip to Naples and down into the bowls Mount Vesuvius. There are pretty ladies in sheep's clothing. There are dead bodies that really aren't dead bodies. And did I mention making Vesuvius its fellow volcanoes into a big bomb?

I really wanted to enjoy this book and have enjoyed Mark Gatiss' books in the past, but it was a bit of an up hill slog to get through. Still, I'm going to read Devil in Amber next. ( )

Great start, not much of an ending. The peekaboo shocker in the middle was eh. I bet it was fun to write. ( )

DNF'd about 60 pages in. Life is too short to suffer such an insufferable, narrow-minded bore of a protagonist who thinks himself a lovable rogue, and the story itself is rather flat and didn't trap my interest enough to keep going.