‘ALL MYSTERIES CONSIDERED’, read the detective agency’s slogan. Clara just assumed the city’s merciless criminal syndicates wouldn’t be the ones to take them up on it.
Even Greater London, 1887. Electricity beams across the sky, Queen Victoria is shaking off her eleventh assassination (and continuing to rule with a literal iron fist), and, after devouring the lower half of England, the gargantuan capital has no equal. Particularly in the exciting – and surprisingly stable from a career perspective – field of crime.
Unfortunately, a crooked casino boss has just been murdered, and his Lucky Dogs crime syndicate want answers. Even more unfortunately, the people they want the answers from are ex-Scotland-Yard Inspector Archibald Fleet and ex-Yorkshire gentlewoman Clara Entwhistle: London’s finest, and only, private detectives. It’s an offer the investigators could, in theory, refuse, but sensibly decide not to.
As the signs point to one of the other powerful gangs running the criminal underworld, and pent-up rivalries simmer beneath a fragile peace, Fleet and Clara must race to find out who’s holding all the cards – and how, if at all possible, they can rid themselves of the friends they’re gaining in all the wrong places.
Return to the sprawling megalopolis of Even Greater London with a new hilarious murder mystery from Sunday Times Bestselling and Wodehouse Prize Nominated authors Chris and Jen Sugden.
Reviews
Prepare for an electrifying ride through Even Greater London in this delightfully twisted mash-up of Douglas Adams and Charles Dickens. High Vaultage positively crackles with invention and intrigue and I loved every page. Mark my words: Fleet and Clara are destined to join the waxwork hall of fame for all-time great literary detective duos
Wickedly funny, deliriously inventive, delightfully weird. The Sugdens' Even Greater London is one of the best-realised fantasy playgrounds since Great A'Tuin ambled across the stars with The Discworld on their back
If you put Sherlock Holmes in a blender with Dickens, and then filtered it through a Terry Pratchett filter - the result is a whole lot of fun
If Douglas Adams . . . were still alive and wanted to get into podcasting, VICTORIOCITY might likely be something he'd have written
The sheer inventiveness keeps you sleuthing on
It is everything I hoped it would be (everything the radio show led me to think it would be) and more: a masterly comic writing and a superb piece of worldbuilding, as perfect a piece of neo-Victoriania as I remember since ... well, since the actual Victorian epoch, which I remember well. You will laugh, you will cry (with laughter), and most of all you will frantically turn the pages. Unlike Queen Victoria, we are most assuredly amused
I LOVED this book . . . I just loved spending time with Clara and Fleet and revelling in their delightful dialogue and marvelling at the wonders of Even Greater London (then having to go and have a lie-down, obviously), and of course trying to solve the Fiendish Mystery (all the while worrying about the safety of an annoying beagle). I already want to return to Mrs Pomligan's Coffee House (and Museum of Nearby Horrible Murder) and take another cab to the Thames Glacier, so I'm desperately hoping that there will be more adventures to come... Thank you so much for sending this to me! Also, for any reader who's already a Victoriocity podcast fan, it's so great to get to know our favourite characters even more, and their voices come through fantastically vividly. But for anyone new to the world, this is a wonderful introduction to the mysterious mechanical madness that is Even Greater London, and the many Highly Suspicious Goings-On therein. And they have a whole podcast to listen to after they've finished!
Electrifying! Full of whimsical humour and unexpected twists, the weird and wonderful world of HIGH VAULTAGE has private detectives and bank heists galore, with a mostly mechanical Queen Victoria thrown in for good measure
Very funny . . . Extremely easy to recommend, especially to fans of Discworld, Dishonoured or Douglas Adams
HIGH VAULTAGE is a joyous, delightful romp through the streets (and omnibuses and frozen, glacial rivers) of Even Greater London. There is no corner of this book that isn't richly imagined, beautifully rendered, and filled to the brim with clever jokes -- perfect for anyone looking for a Pratchett fix!
For lovers of comedy / urban fantasy / alt-history sci-fi this is a winner of a read... A refreshingly happy experience and the start of something very special
Inspired and hilarious . . . Joyously Funny
This charming, funny, meticulously plotted book is unputdownable
More please
Best in class world-building with heart, soul, power and love
A joyous, delightful romp...filled to the brim with clever jokes - perfect for anyone looking for a Pratchett fix
Hilarious
A twisty-turny - and often very funny - historical procedural
High Vaultage is endlessly entertaining - a classic mystery adventure with 10,000 volts of mad science put right through it. It's not just the type of story I wish I could read every day, it's the type of story I wish I could write. Reading it would make me furious with envy if it didn't keep me so busy grinning from ear to ear
Comic fantasy, grounded and shot through with the sharpest wit, High Vaultage is an adventure in an imagined sci-fi Britain that's moulded into a recognisable place by a hilariously old-fashioned mystery, and two wannabe detectives that readers will cherish, and egg on their way. Chris and Jen Sugden have created their own wild world, and it echoes to laughter