“Meet
Lucifer Box: Lucifer has a charming countenance and rapier wit that make him
the guest all hostesses must have. And most do. But few of his conquests know
that Lucifer is also His Majesty's most daring secret agent, at home in both
London's Imperial grandeur and in its underworld of despicable vice. So when
Britain's most prominent scientists begin turning up dead, there is only one
man his country can turn to for help. Following a dinnertime assassination,
Lucifer is dispatched to uncover the whereabouts of missing agent Jocelyn Poop.
Along the way he will give art lessons, be attacked by a poisonous centipede,
bed a few choice specimens, and travel to Italy on business and pleasure. Aided by his henchwoman Delilah; the beautiful,
mysterious, and Dutch Miss Bella Pok; his boss, a dwarf who takes meetings in a
lavatory; grizzled vulcanologist Emmanuel Quibble; and the impertinent,
delicious, right-hand-boy Charlie Jackpot, Lucifer Box deduces and seduces his
way from his elegant townhouse at Number 9 Downing Street (somebody has to live
there) to the ruined city of Pompeii, to infiltrate a highly dangerous secret
society that may hold the fate of the world in its clawlike grip.”
Much of this novel by Mark Gatiss’(best
known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both
written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock) plays out like
a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, and James Bond. It’s a cheeky send-up
of all of them, with outrageous plotting, quips galore and a villain out to
destroy Naples via a volcano. Lucifer Box is a decadent Edwardian
gentleman, young, handsome, charming, and with a pronounced sardonic sense of humor.
While I
enjoyed it somewhat, it is entertaining, but your mileage may vary how much a
parody you can handle in this somewhat short novel (the first of three tales).
It’s not fully satire, something the British are rather good at, and it
reminded me at times of Mike Myers Austin Powers character, and it’s not
subtle, but overall, more fun than I hoped for.
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