The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

A novel of historical significance, but tedious to a modern reader. It varies between Victorian melodrama and deary domestic and observational detail which is both uninteresting and unnecessary to the plot. The denouement is completely lacking in suspense and the whole second half of the book seems an anticlimax. The big secrets of the story are ones that seems insignificant by contemporary standards, and the use of devices such as “brain fever” seem quite hokey and dated. I'm glad I read it, as it is of historical importance, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is not a mystery nerd like me.