Review: The Poisoned Island.....

I came to be reading Lloyd Shepherd's second novel, The Poisoned Island, unsurprisingly from having read his previous work, The English Monster, which I would go so far as to say was my favourite book so far this year. For some reason, I found getting hold of a copy difficult, so decided to buy the iBook version to fill my 'emergency book' slot, i.e. something on my phone, to read in case of no actual book being available. 

This, as it turned out, was my first mistake, as this became a distraction from other actual books quite quickly! As far as novels are concerned, this is still very much the early stages of Shepherd's career. His website tells us freelance journalism has been his writing arena thus far but, since the publication of The English Monster, novels have become his focus. I'm glad to hear it, because I think we have here an excellent 'new' talent in the literary world. Taking, as in his first novel, real historical characters and events and embroidering about them a convincing fog of fiction and reality, Shepherd manages to deliver just the right mix to leave one wondering where the lines between the two are, without interrupting the flow of the exciting tale he is telling.

The main characters of Harrison and Horton are once again our guides through the twists and turns of a London murder mystery that, this time, has it's roots in far off Otahiti, where the actions of a group of crew-members from the survey ship Solander has wide-reaching effects upon their return home.

With just a leavening dollop of the fantastic, this reads much more (to my satisfaction), like a work of historical fiction than a work from the fantasy genre. This is a great piece of entertaining fiction from an author I hope we get to hear much more from in future.