Tangled Web UK Review October 2007
The Revenge of Captain Paine: A Pyke Mystery by
Andrew Pepper
pbk out March 08
(Phoenix)
at £6.99
The Revenge of Captain Paine is not for the faint-hearted.
This is not a criticism as such, for the hardboiled school is essential to the
crime fiction genre. It is, however, interesting to read Mr Pepper's 'Afterword',
where he states his deliberate intention to imitate a hardboiled detective novel, setting
it in 1830s London as opposed to 1930s Los Angeles. In this respect, he has fallen
wide of the mark: the novel is historical noir rather than hardboiled. At the core of
hardboiled crime fiction is the protagonist: usually flawed – sometimes seriously so –
he or she is a rough diamond, with a heart of gold lurking beneath an unseemly
exterior. While ex-Bow Street Runner Pyke is a complex and fascinating character,
he cannot be regarded as anything other than an anti-hero, a brutal, primitive product
of the rookeries where he was raised, a man for whom violence is the first port of call.
If there is any doubt, one has only to look at the number of people he kills, add the
unnecessary and gratuitous collateral damage he causes, and factor in the horrific and
deliberate revenge he enjoys in the final chapter. Pyke – just Pyke – is a villain
straight from the darkness of James M. Cain or Jim Thompson.
The advantage of having such a lead is that Mr Pepper is able to take his
readers on a fantastic journey through the often horrible reality of pre-Victorian
England. Pyke is lured by his old overseer, Sir Robert Peel, into investigating a
conspiracy surrounding the construction of the new railways that are catapulting
Britain and the empire into the modern era. There is only one word to describe the
recreation of the historical period: phenomenal. As for the plot, it is labyrinthine,
weaved with a skill and acumen to match. The conspiracy has far-reaching
consequences, involving the highest in the land, and at times coming tantalisingly
close to historical fact – particularly where the young Princess Victoria is concerned.
In addition to Pyke's struggle for survival and distrust of Peel, he is beset with
domestic problems in the political goals of his aristocratic anarchist wife, Emily, and
the sudden reappearance of an old lover, Marguerite. Both women harbour dire
secrets that will change his life forever…
There is much to recommend The Revenge, although many readers will find
Pyke too unsympathetic a character to follow to the end. This is history with no holds
barred, a step into the violent and visceral world that civilisation has tried so hard to
leave behind. As historical noir, the novel has only one problem. Raymond
Chandler's advice to his successors was to bring a man with a gun through the door
whenever the pace flagged. Despite the dangerous which the novel depicts, there is
too much action, and some sequences mar what is otherwise a tense and gripping
narrative.
But for those who aren't squeamish, this is not to be missed.
(
Rafe McGregor
)
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