|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
In a very dark, eerie Edinburgh of the 1880¹s, the lamplighters (known also as ³leeries²) come out in silent droves at dusk to provide the city with a spooky semblance of light. Danger lurks despite the cast of light and shadow, and when a murder happens, Evelyn Todd claims she has "seen" the murder in her dreams. Another murder occurs, and she comes forward again, saying that the murders happen similaneously as she dreams them. Are they real? Is she a seer ... or a witness? Her history is mysterious, as told in the Prologue. Twenty years prior, ³Eve² was placed in Fountainbridge Orphanage, a place that would compete with Jane Eyre¹s Lowood for religious strictness and sheer dreariness. Perhaps more so as it once housed an abattoir, and the floors were still slanted to let the blood run off. During her stay, she was maligned for her independence, and love of drawing mythical figures. One day, a man claiming to be her "real father" takes her away to his home, puts her in a comfortable room, but doesn't let her leave. Strange visitors arrive in the evening which fuels Eve¹s imagination until one night she is ³visited² by a ³leerie² and her life begins to change. Twenty years later, the brutal homicides begin. Eve has returned to Edinburgh, but prefers to be called ³Evelyn² Todd, never "Eve". The first murder -- a brutal murder of a university professor -- startles the city and Police Inspector Carus Groves, verging on retirement, wants to go out in the limelight by solving this vicious crime. He is also a dutiful scribe who keeps a daily record of his cases so that he can write his memoirs in retirement. The progress of the investigation is told in some of his journal entries. The murders also catch the attention of Thomas McKnight, a jaded professor of metaphysics, who enjoys an audience of one, as he bounces his ideas around with an intellectually curious Irish graveyard sentry, Joseph Canavan, who expands his thirsty mind reading books and the Bible. The two men decide to analyze the dreams and mysterious personality of the unusually shy Evelyn Todd, after yet another murder is committed and she confesses to having dreamt the details. They employ timeworn theories of evil and revenge as they track Evelyn¹s movements through the city after dark. But how could a frail young woman have anything to do with such horrendous violence? This novel provides a dark and spine-tingling atmosphere as evil winds through the streets of Edinburgh. Although the murders have an air of the supernatural, Evelyn Todd's human behavior causes suspicion that she may be responsible for these murders which happen ³in a puff of smoke.² When questioned by Inspector Groves, Evelyn blames it all on ³Leerie, the lamplighter² but who is this Leerie? Her henchman, her protector? Or her scapegoat? Read this labyrinthine novel, THE LAMPLIGHTER, and decide for yourself. --
Reviewed by Tess Allegra, July 2003
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
