I say, that was rather jolly, what? I refer, of course, to The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, the first in an intended series of Calvin Newbury & Hobbes Investigations in which two intrepid Victorian Agents of the Crown solve mysteries involving crashed airships, a zombie plague, a murderous ghostly bobby and clockwork automatons, while all the time managing to behave in a polite and socially acceptable manner save for the occasional bleeding all over the interior fittings of a stream carriage. The world of Sir Maurice Newbury and Miss Veronica Hobbes is decidedly steampunk, as this short extract should show:

The automaton was about the size of a man, skeletal, with a solid torso formed of interlocking breast and back plates. Its eyes were little mirrors that spun constantly on an axis, reflecting back lamplight. Its mouth was nothing but a thin slot and its remaining features were engraved into the otherwise blank mask of its face. In its chest a glass plate revealed, like a tiny porthole, a flickering blue light, dancing like an electric current. Its brass frame shimmered in the light, and it moved like a human being, fully articulated, as it strode across the room towards them. Its joints creaked as it walked and its brass feet clicked on the tiled floor of the workshop.

Nevertheless, there are other influences. I found it hard not to imagine our heroes being portrayed by Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg, and George does a fine line in James Bond style fights. Also Newbury’s fight with the automata was very reminiscent of Doctor Who in places. I shouldn’t need to mention that Newbury has a problem with laudanum, a long-suffering housekeeper and a clueless Chief Inspector for a friend. It is all very fluffy, but good fun and should sell well. It is sad that the book is only available in the US as a limited edition hardcover. Someone needs to get this out as a mass market paperback.