Chris Sugden, Jen Sugden.
High Vaultage.
Gollancz. 2024
rating : 6 : unfinishable
review : 28 February 2026
The sprawling metropolis of Even Greater London spreads across half of England. The immense Tower casts electricity through the sky, powering the mind-boggling city. The engineer-army of Isambard Kingdom Brunel swarms across the capital, unstoppable in their construction. And at the heart of it all sits the country’s first private detective agency.
Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle hoped business would pick up quickly. No-one is taking them seriously, but their break will come soon. Definitely. Probably.
Meanwhile, police are baffled and overwhelmed by a series of impossible bank robberies. Which means that when a woman witnesses a kidnapping, Fleet-Entwhistle Private Investigations is the only place she can turn. They’re more than happy to oblige!
But why would this man be a target? As Clara and Fleet investigate, they find more than they could ever have imagined…
In an alternate steam-punk London, two detectives hope for work.
This is blurbed as ‘joyously funny’, and as shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2024. I’m afraid I found in ponderously dull, with the humour forced and falling flat (but then again, I don't find Wodehouse particularly funny, either). I put it down after 20 pages, and didn’t pick it up again. Maybe it gets better.