Burton and Swinburne in the Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne, #1)

by Mark Hodder

[wyvernfriend]

Not bad but it felt like the author was trying too hard to be clever.

In an Albertian rather than Victorian England Engineers make noisy technology; Eugenicists develop animals for particular purposes; Libertines oppose rigidity and support creativity while the Rakes try to outdo each other in liberal actions.

Into this world comes Richard Francis Burton, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman. He's employed by the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston as King's Spy, to investigate Spring Heeled Jack, and he gets caught up in a lot of strange going's on.

It wasn't a bad read but it didn't leave me wanting more. Oh and really, Oscar Wilde as a paper-boy, not very probable at all.