The Meaning of Night

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox.

Hardcover: 720 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company;(September 17, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0393062031

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Resonant with echoes of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, Cox's richly imagined thriller features an unreliable narrator, Edward Glyver, who opens his chilling "confession" with a cold-blooded account of an anonymous murder that he commits one night on the streets of 1854 London. That killing is mere training for his planned assassination of Phoebus Daunt, an acquaintance Glyver blames for virtually every downturn in his life. Glyver feels Daunt's insidious influence in everything from his humiliating expulsion from school to his dismal career as a law firm factotum. The narrative ultimately centers on the monomaniacal Glyver's discovery of a usurped inheritance that should have been his birthright, the byzantine particulars of which are drawing him into a final, fatal confrontation with Daunt. Cox's tale abounds with startling surprises that are made credible by its scrupulously researched background and details of everyday Victorian life. Its exemplary blend of intrigue, history and romance mark a stand-out literary debut.

Out of the books I have read for RIP, so far, this is my favorite! (followed by The Child Thief by Brom)

I didn't know if this would be a good read or not but when I opened the book I felt the pages.. they were satin soft.  I couldn't help but run my hand over pages as I read thru this book.. even the feel of it was outstanding.

In the beginning  I thought it was a little slow, and wondered if I had made a mistake picking it up to read, but still ..it maintained my interest. As I read on, thru the 700 (or so) pages, it slowly grew and became better and better the more I read.  Yes, indeed this was growing into a good book! 

I most liked that it began with the murder and then went back to tell the story of how Edward got to the point of where he was, and then in the final chapters tells you what happens "after" the murder.

The first sentence was a humdinger and will draw you in:

"After I murdered the red-haired man, I took myself out to Quinn's for an oyster supper."

What sort of person murders someone and then goes out to eat?!  I don't think I like this person!.. but .. as the story goes on you do grow to like him... or maybe it's that you understand him.

I rarely recommend a book but if you enjoy Mysteries, and indeed this book is much more filled with mysteries than it is with Murder, and you enjoy books that place you in "old England".. then I think you will enjoy this book . 

I certainly must have enjoyed it as the pages just flew by!  I liked the book and I liked the author for his very fine writing.. I have already sent for another book,The Glass of Time, by Michael Cox.

RIP Challenge. (book 5) (as good as this was it still didn't overtake my 2 most favorite reads since I began doing Carl's RIP challenge which are: The Thirteenth Tale and Drood)