Books: The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss must be a busy man at the moment. Between the League Of Gentleman film and scripting episodes for Doctor Who he has also turned out a novel. Unfortunately The Vesuvius Club lacks either attention of talent. A whimsical story of a Victorian detective it tries to be arch and outrageous but is dragged down to earth by plodding prose and a lack of laughs. Gatiss has written many a Doctor Who novel but the change of style here seems not to have suited him.