A tale of death, opium and what’s worse than death

I’ll be honest: this was not a book that appealed to me. The title suggested fantastical doings and the blurb made reference to three equally irritating ideas: our hero has a “nemesis” and will be “pulled into the sinister and mysterious world of Georgian London” where he “must make a journey that will change his life forever”. So we have a set of clichés and a novel that’s keen to assert its historical credentials. And, to add insult to boredom, there was a Richard and Judy sticker slapped onto the top left hand corner.