Customer Reviews

Nocturne

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Vincent Bantry, an army captain, injured in a fight with pirates in the South China seas is given a medical discharge and returns home to London, leaving behind a sumptuous home and a boy named Lin. Thrown into the social whirl of Victorian London, Vincent escorts his doctor friend David Lockwood's daughter Phoebe to an evening soiree where he meets Michael Flynn ~ a noted occultist and self proclaimed `child of the night'.

It's not long before Vincent and Michael find themselves mutually attracted ~ a situation that presents many problems for them, not the least of which is society's dislike of same-sex relationships, something that could land both of them in jail. Jail for Michael Flynn would be a death sentence. Vincent's friend, David Lockwood says he suffers from a little known disease ~ phototonic mydriasis ~ an inability to be out and about in daylight.

As strange as the disease seems to Vincent, the truth is even stranger. Despite all the obstacles in their way, the men fall in love, but when Lockwood, obsessed with Michael's condition, holds him hostage while he inflicts painful and dangerous experiments on him, it seems their love affair is doomed.

Mel Keegan has written a riveting account of life in a by-gone age, filled with fascinating anecdotes of real people mixed with the fictional, giving this paranormal story just the right touch of realism. The love between the two men feels honest and real, and Vincent's desire to protect Michael at all costs from those who would destroy him is heart-warming. A spell- binding and different take on the vampire legend.

Mel Keegan writes absorbing period pieces involving homosexual men and their amours. They are always welcome additions to the genre. Sadly, his novels are getting longer and longer; are weighed down with far too much detail and fall victim to repetition. All this impedes the various plots and produces many longuers in the narrative. Also, given the trouble he has gone too to enrich Nocturne with historical facts, the mistakes are disconcerting. For example, Nocturne is set around 1900 and involves a rather interesting and intelligent take on vampires and changelings, eschewing the usual clichés of the genre. At one point the main characters attend a concert in London given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. However, this orchestra was not founded until 1946. At another point they take a night train to London from the Gare de Lyon Paris. Trains from Paris to London depart from Gare du Nord. Only one train went from Gare du Lyon to Calais and it was a day train. This would not have suited our vampire characters. Trivia, I agree, but some rigorous editing of this and some of his other novels (The Swordsman, The Deceivers, Dangerous Moonlight), would have made these books far more compelling.