Michael Cox's Meaning of Night is a diverting Victorian thriller that doesn't stray far from the cliches of the genre: lost inheritances, prostitutes, a fetish with royalty, etc. Although the book begins with a vicious murder that was probably intended to startle the reader -- and to get the manuscript out of the slush pile -- I thought the plot was pretty slow until another, more affecting death occurs about a third of the way through. The story then settles into the familiar (albeit well done) routine of a mystery novel.

The chief weakness of the book is the undeveloped rivalry between the protagonist, Edward Glyver, and his ostensible opponent, Phillip Daunt. The rivalry is both over- and underdetermined. On the one hand, Daunt torments Glyver consistently from grade school onward. On the other hand, Daunt does so at such a distance -- he barely shows up in person -- that the hatred between the two men is almost abstract. As a result, the book gives plenty of reasons for the two men to hate each other, but not much passion.

Copyright © 2009 Steven Wu