Victorian Historical Fiction Rules!

One of my favorite settings for historical fiction is the Victorian period in England. You wouldn’t believe the interesting historical tidbits I’ve picked up from reading fiction. As a matter of fact, reading historical fiction is pretty much how I learn history, sadly. Just in the past few months, I have read more than one book set during the Victorian era that feature the prevalence of opium use and addiction in England and the ramifications of the Opium Wars. The most fascinating of those I read is David Morrell’s historical thriller, Murder as a Fine Art.

Morrell cleverly uses the infamous literary figure Thomas De Quincey, the author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, as the prime suspect in a series of copycat killings exactly like the famous Ratcliffe Highway murders from forty-three years before the start of this story. Even more damning in the eyes of Scotland Yard, the murders seem be motivated by De Qunicey’s own essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.”  De Quincey must collaborate with two Scotland Yard detectives and his daughter Emily to find the real murderer and clear his name.

Although I guessed the identity of the killer before the reveal by Morrell, I loved the historical details of Victorian London and the background on opium use and the Opium Wars. I even discovered that London police were nicknamed “bobbies” after the founder of the police force, Sir Robert Peel. De Quincey proves a brilliant detective; he could give Sherlock Holmes some stiff competition. If you have ever wondered about the Ratcliffe Highway murders, or if you’re looking for an enthralling Victorian thriller, this is the book for you.

If you like Murder as a Fine Art, you might want to try another Victorian historical novel that is on my to-be-read list – The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. Also set in Victorian England, Cox fashions a story full of murder, love, lies and vengeance centered on a poor scholar, young Edward Glyver, who is driven to murder when he is barred from an education at Cambridge and much more by the insufferable Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. In the quest to regain the wealth and influence Edward feels is his due, he travels a path that leads from a foggy London of low brothels and opium dens (the opium problem again) to Evenwood, one of England’s grandest country houses, and ultimately to an obsessive love for the inscrutable Emily Cateret. And everywhere his path leads, Edward is thwarted by his nemesis, the criminal poet Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. The Meaning of Night sounds intriguing to me, promising thrills right up to the closing pages.

Historical fiction set in Victorian England is the best, especially when set in London. Gas lit streets, fog, opium dens, unsavory doings hidden beneath a proper Victorian social exterior – what more could a historical fiction fan ask for?

(I’m reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt right now. What are you reading?)