Ariel Manto is an academic with a passionate interest in an obscure Victorian scientist, Thomas Lumas. She is offered a job by the leading Lumas authority, but he disappears. One rainy afternoon, after the unexpected collapse of her office building, Ariel wanders into a secondhand bookshop and finds an impossibly rare copy of Lumas’s final book, The End of Mr Y. There is a legend that the book is cursed. Everyone connected to it, including Lumas himself, disappeared. Does Ariel dare to read it? This splendid piece of Victorian Gothic has a delightful whiff of decaying books, and a strong pinch of sulphur. Hugely enjoyable.
THE END OF MR Y by Scarlett Thomas
Canongate, £12.99
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