The Lunatic’s Curse – Book Review

This new “polyquel” of Higgins’ Tales of the Sinister City harbors the wickedest horrors and the greatest potential of the human condition manifested in unforgettable characters. The city itself becomes a player in this complex maze of pseudo-Dickensian atmosphere, along with a bottomless lake, an asylum on a hill, and a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels.

Although mired in oppressive despair, captivating personalities and suspense drive the narrative in a relentless dirge of cold realism. There is no magic in this world, so the story must rely on force of character to pull you into a fantastic Victorian realm. The good hold love deep in their hearts despite the grim and desperate world they are thrust into. The bad guys are vermin. They fall because of their own choices, and as if gaping at an accident scene, we are held in the spine-tingling clutches of macabre fascination. Higgins weaves such a world decorated with interesting names and truly unique situations. The mind dwells on these books for days after they are finished.

The story unfolds in Oppum Oppidulum, home for the wealthy, far from the squalor of Urbs Umida seen in earlier novels. The wealthy and famous Ambrose Grammaticus is an engineer and a genius, founder of his own design and construction company. Before we can learn anything more about him, Ambrose goes mad at the dinner table in front of his son Rex, and his strangely unconcerned wife Acantha. Almost as if it had been expected, the authorities rush in and remove Ambrose to Droprock asylum for the Peculiar and Bizarre, a cold dungeon towering above Lake Beluarum.

Similarly locked away in his bedroom, amid Acantha’s luxurious dinners for the Society of Andrew Faye, Rex learns of the “Law of 100 Days,” in which, after so long a time has passed after a diagnosis of delirium, if a person has not regained any sense of sanity his property falls to those positioned to inherit it. This of course, is Acantha, while it seems Rex will inherit only a trip to Boarding School.

Under the dubious care of Cadmus Chapelizod, there is an uprising at the Asylum. Ambrose gains his freedom, takes Rex on a surreptitious jaunt to a strange nightlife underworld, and gifts him with both a diamond and a series of riddles. “Don’t fly too close to the sun,” and “On your head be it.” He tells Rex that the proof he needs to expose Acantha for the hateful criminal she is lay hidden on the island. All he need do is take it to Cecil at the local newspaper: The Hebdomidal.

This clears the way for Tibor Vehildegildus, inventor of the new and mysterious “Lodestone Procedure” (hypnosis,) who is invited to come from the city of Urbs Umida to preside as the new superintendent. This is lucky for Rex in that Tibor has possession of his father’s plans for a “perambulating submersible” (submarine), but unlucky in that Acantha is first in line to have Tibor try the new procedure on Rex, to discover what it was his father told him the night Ambrose was captured as an escapee.

Meanwhile, Hildred Buttonquail, a contortionist, leaves her home at a sideshow and comes to work restoring the Asylum after the riot. She discovers that Lake Beluarum does indeed have a monster, and that Droprock Asylum has a maze of tunnels carved deep within the bedrock below, filled with skeletons. Rex joins with her when Tibor unexpectedly offers that, should he wish to stay and help build the submersible, (being a Grammaticus and thus an excellent engineer,) he would not be returned to Acantha’s care. Though Tibor claims to have designed the submersible, Rex stays and he and Hildred become companions in searching for the proof Ambrose promised.

Soon they run into Gerulphus, the caretaker, in a room that can be disguised as nothing more than a torture chamber. Will they escape? Will Rex find the proof his father left? What is the mysterious golden egg that Rex has in his pocket? Will the mysterious Andrew Faye finally reveal himself? Who has been feeding the lake monster in the blue-glowing cavern at the end of the tunnels? Who did Rex’s father take him to visit that fateful night?

In tying up the loose ends, which Higgins does satisfyingly and with flair, we also learn how the characters are woven together throughout the sinister cities. Gerulphus appeared in the previous novel, the Eyeball Collector; we are reminded that we have already met Hildred’s father, and Rex ends his journey in the shop spotlighted in the fist polyquel, The Black Book of Secrets. In fact, there are so many details and facets within the story, it almost begs to be re-read with a new perspective.

You will never see what is coming. Who survives and who does not is unpredictable in the whirlwind climax.

There is a curse, and it is unforgettable.