Mark Gatiss The Vesuvius Club

The Vesuvius Club

Mark Gatiss

Scribner, Oct 2005, $13.00, 240 pp.

ISBN 0743288945

At the turn of the twentieth century in London, England, artist Lucifer Box is a renowned rake who also utilizes all his personas as a spy in his majesty's service, blackmailed by the family lawyer into assassinating England's enemies, a job he performs quite well. After debriefing his handler in a public bathroom he is asked to investigate the death of Jocelyn Poop, a diplomat in Naples who spies for England.

Poop sent a wire before his death mentioning two scientists studying volcanic activity, dying within days of each other in what looks like natural causes but the coincidence of these deaths so close is very suspicious. The funeral parlor that performed the burial is based in England and Naples. Lucifer visits and opens the coffin of one of the scientists but the body is gone. The other scientist's body is also missing. Believing the answer is in Naples, Lucifer travels there only to encounter THE VESUVIUS CLUB a secret organization that plans to destroy that part of the world unless Lucifer can kill the leaders and stop the ticking time bomb.

This is a tongue in cheek version of James Bond only more earthy, decedent and reminiscent of the last depraved days of the Roman Empire. The protagonist is a very naughty man who is a hedonist at heart and gets his jollies from knowing he is one of the saviors of the British Empire. This is not a book to be taken seriously but a work to be enjoyed for its earthly humor, fun characters, and fine setting.

Harriet Klausner