#BookReview-Newbury and Hobbes-The Revenant Express’ by George Mann

Today, I am reviewing the 5th in the ‘Newbury and Hobbes’ series, ‘The Revenant Express’, 5 years in the making and published to mark the 10th anniversary of book 1!

Also to mark this prestigious occasion, Titan Comics are presenting their adventures in graphic novel form, hurray!

About the book…

The grand adventure continues in George Mann’s Newbury & Hobbes steampunk mystery series, as a Victorian special agent races across a continent to save his beloved’s life on board The Revenant Express.

Sir Maurice Newbury is bereft as his trusty assistant Veronica Hobbes lies dying with a wounded heart. Newbury and Veronica’s sister Amelia must take a sleeper train across Europe to St. Petersberg to claim a clockwork heart that Newbury has commissioned from Faberge to save Veronica from a life trapped in limbo.

No sooner do they take off then sinister goings-on start to plague the train, and it is discovered that an old villain, thought dead, is also on board and seeking revenge. Can Newbury and Amelia defeat him and get the clockwork organ back to the Fixer in time to save Veronica? And can they do so without Newbury going so far into the dark side of occult magic that he can never return?

Meanwhile, Sir Charles Bainbridge is the only one of their team left in London to struggle with a case involving a series of horrific crimes. Someone is kidnapping prominent men and infecting them with the Revenant plague, leaving them chained in various locations around the city. But why?

It’s a rousing chase to save both London and Veronica. Will these brave detectives be up to the task?

It took me a while to see where this book was going…but what a journey!!

This was mostly because I am dyslexic, and struggle sometimes with plots, and have to go back and check details and names-I couldn’t understand the alternating storylines were running parrallel to each other were also a year apart. The story involving Veronica Hobbes took place in 1902 and the one with Newbury and Amelia Hobbes was in 1903-once that clicked I was off!

This is a steampunk mystery not best suited for those who are faint of heart-the rain soaked crime scene trope is given a gruesome and very unusual revamp as Veronica finds a new variant on the revenant plague which is sweeping Britain. Revenants are those infected by the palgue which turns people into flesh eating zombie like creatures. There is currently no cure for the plague but that has not stopped someone trying,with deadly consequences.

The UK is ruled by a life support system sustaining Queen Victoria who is in charge of the secret services and as such is Veronica’s boss. Veronica is charged with finding who has been responsible for 2 nurses going missing from a hospital that no one can locate as well as locating the mad person who has created this new menace to London which is as fatal as the revenant plague.

Meanwhile, in 1903, Newbury has abandoned his search for his enemy to accompany Amelia on a trans European sleeper train to St Petersberg, where he will meet with Faberge to collect a clockwork heart that can fix Veronica’s broken one.

However, first he has to deal with the caballistic murder victim left in his cabin, find out who is trying to frame him and attempting steal his most treasured possession, and work out just what the train driver is using as fuel….and on top of that there is a revenant on the loose on the train!

A rip roaring adventure that at times had me gasping for breath, I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Revenant Express’ and intend to catch up with Newbury and Hobbes’ prior adventures. There was lots of action, brilliant descriptions of a steampunk alternate London and fearless 2 heroines and a hero that I would be willing to go on adventures with!

This book is currently available in paperback and contains an added short story, ‘The World of Menamhotep’

For further short fiction and timelines for the Newbury and Hobbes adventures, and so much more, follow the links below!

*Picture in the featured image is by the very talented Ben Wootton from the link  https://t.co/HzTTOIXk6C  *

About the author…

George Mann is the author of the Newbury and Hobbes and The Ghost series of novels, as well as numerous short stories, novellas and audiobooks. He has written fiction and audio scripts for the BBC’s Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. He is also a respected anthologist and has edited The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction and The Solaris Book of New Fantasy. He lives near Grantham, UK.

Twitter @George_Mann

George Mann wordpress