The Minutes of the Lazarus Club

The Minutes of the Lazarus Club is the first novel by Tony Pollard and a very impressive debut it is as he skillfully blends a police search for a serial killer with a plot to supply secret weapons. This all takes place against the background of the Victorian Golden Age of invention and inovation. The iconic engineer I.K. Brunel completing work on the Great Eastern, the biggest ship in the history of the world at that time, finds time to attend the anatomy lectures of Dr George Phillips at St Thomas hospital and invites him to attend a meeting of his secretive club. There Phillips meets Charles Darwin, Joseph Bazalgette the engineer responsible for London's sewage system, Charles Babbage maker of the world's first mechanical computer and many other leading figures of Victorian industry. Their stated aim is the advancement of science but soon Phillips is aware that some have more sinister motives. Dr Pollard has written an excellent novel by turns intellectual puzzle and action adventure all on a secure basis of historical research. This is a first class piece of entertainment.