The Affinity Bridge is George Mann’s first novel in the Newbury and Hobbes Investigations series. In it we are introduced to Sir Maurice Newbury, Gentleman Investigator for the Crown, Miss Veronica Hobbes, his intrepid assistant, and the fascinating and smokey version of London and life that Mann so cleverly creates. The rattling, smokey, and steam-powered atmosphere that surrounds Newbury and Hobbes is as important a character as the two detectives, and the first glimpse of Queen Victoria is worth the price of admission all on its own.

This novel begins with the terrifying death of three soldiers stationed in India:

The creature that was menacing Taylor was like something raised from the very depths of Hades itself. It was dressed in the torn rags of an Indian peasant, and may have once been human, but now looked more like a half-rotted corpse than anything resembling a man. The creature’s skin was desiccated and peeling, its eyes bloodshot, its hair hanging in loose, stringy strands around its face.

These diseased humans, called revenants by those in London unlucky enough to learn of their existence, carry a deadly virus, one capable of turning a man into a monster. And these monsters are stalking the poor and defenseless in London, infecting more victims every evening while hidden in the fog and smog that hang heavy over the city. Those who don’t fall victim to the virus and disappear cower in their houses after dark, and thus miss some of the things that are an even greater danger to those who would walk freely in the city.

Sir Maurice is called in by the Queen because of a terrible accident. One of the airships that sail over London on a daily basis has crashed, its helium filled balloon exploding on impact. Newbury and Hobbes survey the melted and warped frame of the airship and discover a terrible sight, the bodies of the passengers, tied to their chairs. Convinced that the mystery of the bound passengers points at sinister motives, and ordered by the Queen to continue the investigation, Newbury and Hobbes quickly set out to see what sort of secrets were so important that an airship full of passengers must be killed to keep them. Is it connected to the ghost that is rumoured to haunt the poorer areas? Or is there a deeper conspiracy afoot?

Mann does an excellent job creating a world just on the cusp of technological explosion. For the moment, horse-drawn carriages travel alongside steam powered contraptions and the noise, smoke, and strangeness of the contrivances still drives some people away, but the future is there, waiting with engines running, and the advances that the technology implies both fascinate and terrify. Newbury is definitely a hero in the style of Sherlock Holmes, and he and Hobbes are a fun pair to follow through the streets of London.

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