Tom-all-alone's by Lynn Shepherd

This, according to one John Carey, is a re-write of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House but as I have never read it I am unable to confirm or deny this assertion.   What I can say is that this is an excellent Victorian "Gaslight" thriller complete with all the fog and the filth, the dark alleys and even darker villains that one expects.   Ex-policeman Charles Maddox is trying to earn a living as a private investigator when he is offered a commission by Edward Tulkinghorne lawyer to the rich and famous.   The fee is handsome by Maddox standards and the investigation straightforward but from the start he is sceptical and, as the story reveals, with good reason.   Like all good private detectives Maddox finds more than his client wants disclosed and Tulkinghorne has powerful friends, not least in the police force, to call on.   This is a well constructed and well written book that will give hours of entertainment to lovers of Victorian drama.