GIDEON SMITH AND THE MASK OF THE RI - Softcover

Barnett, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765334267 ISBN 13: 9780765334268

Verlag: St. Martins Press-3PL, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Gideon Smith and the Mask of the Ripper is the finale in David Barnett's riproaring steampunk adventures about a Britain that never was...but should have been.

In an alternate nineteenth century where a technologically advanced Britain holds sway over most of the known world and the American Revolution never happened, young Gideon Smith is firmly established as the Hero of the Empire.

Back in London, Gideon and his colleagues: journalist Aloysius Bent, airship pilot Rowena Fanshawe, and Maria, the mechanical girl to whom Gideon has lost his heart, are dragged into a case that is confounding the Metropolitan Police. For the city is on the edge of mass rioting due to the continuing reign of terror by the serial killer known only as Jack the Ripper, who is rampaging though London's less salubrious quarters.

While chasing the madman, a villain from their past strips Gideon Smith of his memory and is cast adrift in the seedy underbelly of London, where life is tough and death lurks in every shadowy alley.

With mob rule threatening to engulf London, the Empire has never needed its hero more...but where is Gideon Smith?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David Barnett

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Gideon Smith and the Mask of the Ripper

By David Barnett

Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright © 2015 David Barnett
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7653-3426-8

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Acknowledgments, 
Map, 
Epigraph, 
1. December 1887, 
2. December 1890, 
3. Jack the Bloody Ripper, 
4. "You're the Hero of the Empire, Mr. Smith", 
5. The Gravity of the Situation, 
6. The Visitation, 
7. Identity Crisis, 
8. Rule of Law, 
9. Lizzie Strutter, 
10. Tait and Lyall, 
11. Regina v Fanshawe, 
12. Airs and Graces, 
13. The Man Who Knew Too Much, 
14. The Professor of Adventure, 
15. Turning Nasty, 
16. Gloria Monday, 
17. Maria Revealed, 
18. Unforeseen Circumstances, 
19. El Hombre de Negro, 
20. Fereng's Story, 
21. The Trial of Rowena Fanshawe, 
22. Reign of Terror, 
23. Gideon Smith Is Alive!, 
24. Thicker Than Water, 
25. Learning to Fly, 
26. Ghosts, 
27. Hearts' Desires, 
28. Going Underground, 
29. For the Avoidance of Further Doubt, 
30. "A Lost Father Dies", 
31. Scourge of the British Empire, 
32. Delivered from Hell, 
About the Author, 
Also by David Barnett, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

December 1887

Captain James Palmer held the wheel steady as the Lady Jane lurched into a trough between gunmetal waves taller than Big Ben. There was a volley of shouts from the deck and a crack of splintering wood; Palmer ignored it, concentrating on keeping his vessel upright on the storm-ravaged sea. It would be that damned cargo, swinging around on the gantry and crashing into midships. He didn't care how much the bloody thing had cost or whether there would be hell to pay; if it threatened to drag the Lady Jane over he would order it cut loose, and hang the consequences.

The door to the bridge banged open, letting in the howling Atlantic gale and a spray of seawater. Cursing, Palmer reached one hand out for the papers the wind tried to snatch up, the wheel skidding a half-turn, the ship shuddering and dipping in the storm.

"Our status, please, Mr. Devonshire," called Palmer without turning around, shoving the papers into his oilskin and returning his full weight to keeping the wheel immobile.

"Never seen anything like it," gasped the first mate, throwing himself at the door to force it shut against the sodden wind. "It's bloody hell out there."

"It is December, and it is the Atlantic," said Palmer. "You were perhaps expecting sunshine and lily pads, Mr. Devonshire?" Not waiting for the first mate to answer, Palmer went on, "Here, take the wheel. I need to look at these charts again."

Devonshire, his woolen sweater drenched, his gray hair plastered to his head, applied his meaty forearms to wrestling the wheel into submission. A sudden lull allowed Palmer to place himself at the bolted-down table and withdraw the papers from his coat.

"How are our guests taking this bit of weather?" asked Palmer mildly.

Devonshire gave him a gap-toothed grin. "They're Royal Navy, so they'd never let on. But I can tell they're shit-scared."

Palmer grunted with satisfaction. "Good. Perhaps teach them not to try to lord it over us on our own ship."

Us, of course, was a bone of contention for Captain Palmer — of the Lady Jane's regular crew, only himself and Mr. Devonshire were on board. If the ever-mysterious Mr. Walsingham'd had his way, it would have been Palmer only, but the captain had drawn the line there. He was an experienced seaman who had done his fair share of work for the Crown on enterprises that were not always aboveboard, and very often beyond the ken of ordinary folk. When Walsingham had come to visit him at Portsmouth he'd outlined the mission, named his price, and laid down the terms: a journey to Gibraltar to pick up a secret cargo, three Royal Navy officers, and a civilian. There Palmer was to give his regular men shore leave and pick up a casual crew from the sailors who hung around the place they called the Rock, paying them in coin and telling them nothing of the next leg of the journey — a specific spot some 150 miles west by southwest of the Faroes, just about midway between Scotland's northernmost tip and the arse-end of Iceland.

"No," Palmer had said. "My crew goes with me."

"Not this time," said Walsingham, watching him intently with those hawkish eyes. "Not if they want to live."

Palmer had leaned forward, his elbows on the table in the shadowy quayside pub where he liked to do business, and filled the bowl of his pipe with tobacco. "Suicide mission, is it?"

"Not for you, Captain. But dangerous. Very, very dangerous. And most secret."

"You wouldn't be here otherwise," said Palmer, stroking his beard.

He'd negotiated his trusted first mate, Mr. Devonshire, on board but had eventually capitulated on the rest, of course, taking Walsingham's handsome purse and granting the rest of his men a week's paid furlough on Gibraltar. He'd picked up five new crewmen easy enough; once word got out that Captain James Palmer was hiring, they were lining up to sign on. His reputation preceded him, and it was one of adventure and — more often than not — riches. There were two Spaniards, a Frenchman, a mulatto built like a brick outhouse with tribal tattoos on his face and a silent way about him, and an Irishman from Cork. Like all sailors-for-hire who hung around the Gibraltar ports, they had a slightly desperate air about them: They were men who had nothing to lose because they'd already lost it, travelers with no ties who went whichever way the winds — or the steam-engines — took them. Gibraltar was a Royal Navy base these days, but still the Rock drew the flotsam and jetsam of the merchantman trade as a way station between Europe and Africa and a place to hear stories, listen to gossip, pick up rumors, and sign on for the next voyage. It was a melting pot, which was why Captain Palmer had both Spaniard and Frenchman on board without — as yet — any bloodshed. Even with grog in them and their blood up, land-bound enmities were put aside in favor of the brotherhood conferred by a life on the sea. The ocean was a constantly shifting, ever-changing territory, but still men such as those he had hired on Gibraltar considered it home more than they did any land-locked state.

Palmer spread the papers out on the table. He had been given them by Walsingham, who had insisted that he was to show them to no one else, nor copy them in any way, and that they were to be returned at the close of the venture. They were excerpts of a larger work that Walsingham termed the Hallendrup Manuscript, dating back to Denmark sometime in the 1650s, but the hawkish representative of the Crown had not elaborated further. The hand-copied pages given to Palmer seemed to detail the journey of a Norse longship in the late tenth century, which had met some calamity in the Atlantic Ocean. The clumsy translation suggested the ship had fallen victim to what the original manuscript called hafgufa, which seemed to translate as "sea mist." The Lady Jane lurched again, the wind howling around the cabin, lashing the windows with thick rain that hinted at fledgling ice. Palmer shook his head. A ferocious sea mist, to send a Viking longship to the bottom of the sea. But that name ... hafgufa. He was sure he'd heard it before, or something like it, but in a much different context than a sea...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0765334267
• ISBN 13: 9780765334268
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 382
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland