By Gaslight

By: Steven Price

Narrated by: John Lee

Longlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize

Number One National Best Seller

Globe and Mail's "20 Books to Read in 2016", Maclean's best seller, Toronto Star best seller, Ottawa Citizen's "Best on the Shelf", Huffington Post's "Best Fall 2016 Books", Publishers Weekly "Books of the Week", National Post best seller, Vanity Fair 2016 "Must Read Books of the Fall"

"A dark tale of love, betrayal and murder that reaches from the slums of Victorian London to the diamond mines in South Africa, to the American Civil War and back. Superb storytelling." (Kurt Palka, author of The Piano Maker)

A magnificent literary historical-suspense novel in the tradition of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers, and Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White, By Gaslight is destined to be one of the most acclaimed and talked-about books of the year.

London, 1885. In a city of fog and darkness, the notorious thief Edward Shade exists only as a ghost, a fabled con, a thief of other men's futures - a man of smoke. William Pinkerton is already famous, the son of a brutal detective, when he descends into the underworld of Victorian London in pursuit of a new lead. His father died without ever tracing Shade; William, still reeling from his loss, is determined to drag the thief out of the shadows. Adam Foole is a gentleman without a past, haunted by a love affair 10 years gone. When he receives a letter from his lost beloved, he returns to London in search of her; what he learns of her fate, and its connection to the man known as Shade, will force him to confront a grief he thought long-buried. What follows is a fog-enshrouded hunt through sewers, opium dens, drawing rooms, and seance halls. Above all, it is the story of the most unlikely of bonds: between William Pinkerton, the greatest detective of his age, and Adam Foole, the one man who may hold the key to finding Edward Shade.

Epic in scope, brilliantly conceived, and stunningly written, Steven Price's By Gaslight is a riveting, atmospheric portrait of two men on the brink. Moving from the diamond mines of South Africa to the battlefields of the Civil War, the novel is a journey into a cityscape of grief, trust, and its breaking, where what we share can bind us even against our darker selves.

©2016 Steven Price (P)2019 McClelland & Stewart

Critic reviews

"The novel’s climax, the big reveal, is a hard-won discovery, rooted not in detection but in the characters themselves, skillfully drawn and pushed to their limits." (National Post)

"By Gaslight is Canadian writer Steven Price's copious second novel, a mystery. At its best, it will remind you of the work of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Conan Doyle. It exudes an abundance of atmospherics mixed with indirection and subtle plot lines.... By Gaslight is a novel bordering on exceptional." (NSC2 News)

"A dark tale of love, betrayal and murder that reaches from the slums of Victorian London to the diamond mines in South Africa, to the American Civil War and back. Superb storytelling." (Kurt Palka, author of The Piano Maker)

Great Book!

John Lee narrates at the the same high standard that I look forward to.
The story is very interesting. I really enjoyed how the author ties together several different peoples stories from several different timelines. Very entertaining. Gritty. I felt as if I needed a bath just to wash the soot from my hair. Job well done.

I wanted to love this

I was excited to find this audiobook as it is my favourite genre. However, after 7 chapters I had to stop. Not enough story to keep me engaged. The writing was good, as was the narration.