Despite the title, this hasn't a hint of horror in it. There are some Gothic nods with graveyards and a lot of fog but Copper never intended this to be horror. This is a straight-up mystery.

Lazy reviewers will probably call this a Holmes pastiche, but its not. It seems that anyone who sets a detective novel in the gaslight era is bound to be accused of imitating Doyle. Its as if any detective novel set in the 1940's must be a Marlowe pastiche. You see what I mean. Despite borrowing the period and a few characters to provide unnecessary Holmesian consistency, Clyde Beatty and Dotterell are no Holmes/Watson clones.

The mystery and the story are fairly entertaining but the plot drags a little once you figure out the gist of the whole thing. There is a clumsy romance involved that I think WAS meant to distinguish Beatty from Holmes but it is unnecessary. There is an almost inexplicable suicide in the middle that must have been because Copper didn't know what to do with the character anymore, or maybe a red herring to throw the reader off. Since the body was never found I kept expecting him to reappear somewhere.

Copper's writing is lively but not particularly evocative. I think he could have done more with the eerie settings even within the mystery genre. ( )

Set in Victorian England in a fictional existence in which Sherlock Holmes is a real person, Necropolis begins with a visit by a young woman to a Mr. Clyde Beatty, a private investigator. The lady is Miss Angela Meredith; her father's recent death seemed suspicious to her, her theory augmented by a burnt portion of a letter left in her father's fireplace grate. She is convinced that he would have recovered from his illness, but he died shortly after a visit from his physician, a Dr. Couchman. Couchman owned and operated a nursing home in Woking, Surrey, so it is here that Beatty begins his investigation. In the guise of a doctor, Beatty travels to Surrey, where he informs Couchman that Miss Meredith has ordered an exhumation & autopsy of her father's body -- and this is where the action truly begins. Beatty and his assistant Dotterell find themselves involved in a plot that leads them to Brookwood Cemetery via the Necropolis Railway -- where Beatty finds himself in danger at every turn.

I really enjoy this author's work and he did not disappoint in this one. The story keeps you reading -- I never wanted to put this book down. It is labeled on the dust jacket as a gothic, and it certainly does contain many gothic elements (e.g. the sinister nursing home, the cemetery), but it's basically a very well done, good old-fashioned mystery story like nobody writes any more. This is an example of why I don't stick to modern novels -- I would read this stuff all of the time if I could find more like this. My only complaint about this book is that I spent much of the time wondering why Copper would name his main character after a circus owner, but that's really a non-complaint.

Who would like it? Anyone who likes good old-fashioned mysteries or mysteries set in the Victorian period might enjoy this book. It is really nonstop action and ther eis quite an element of suspense that is built up that lasts to the end.

Overall, a very fun read -- a great book for a stormy day. ( )