Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer, by Michael-Israel Jarvis

19^th century London. A dark gentleman. Underground Alchemy. Violence.

I am always sceptical of new books, considering that a lot of the literature I read is older than my own parents, but here is a young novel that feels as if it would rather be old – whilst not letting go of its attachment to overly-emotional younger readers. Luckily this queer tight-rope act just about succeeds in its aims, creating a memorable and enthralling work, remaining faithful to the past by playfully altering it at every turn. Michael-Israel Jarvis, previously of Gravedigger and Land Rising, is now attempting to corner the Young-Adult Fantasy market with this dark little tale about a brutal murder, kidnapping and pseudo-science in a twisted version of Victorian Britain. It’s his best and strangest work yet.

As is obligatory in Young Adult fantasy, the protagonist is a young lad with a heavy burden on his shoulders. Edward Sax has just murdered his uncle. Stabbed him brutally to death, to be specific. He is then picked up by a mysterious gentleman, finely-dressed, of odd visage, and for some reason very interested in Edward’s fate – he knows all about the murder, and offers to keep Edward safe if the boy murderer would enter his employ. This is Osric Fingerbone, alchemist and deadly-dark-gentleman-for-hire extraordinaire, and together with his new apprentice they delve into the darkness of the Undercity in search of Edward’s missing sister, Eleanor.

The world this all takes place in is quite good; familiar, but with a nasty little edge to everything. An alternate 19^th century Britain which seems to have undergone something of an Anglo-Saxon revival – the city of Londun rather than London, and Anglund rather than England, Brystol and Norwych as ditto – Frankia rather than France. You get the picture. The main differences can be found in the Undercity, the sewers and ruins beneath Londun inhabited by a its own society, as well as the lowest of human – and not-quite-human – life. The other major difference to account for is Osric’s chosen profession of Alchemy. The mixture and distillation of chemicals to create life-altering substances is the driving force behind this plot, allowing people to extend their lives long beyond their normal confines, give themselves temporary new abilities or, in a more sinister vein, to change and alter the human form in ghastly ways. I’ve dealt with alchemy in a number of places in recent months, such as its brief appearance as a one-off McGuffin in Harry Potter, and when Paulo Coelho briefly touched on it in his piece of superstition proselytizing, but here it takes on the form of a Fantasy plot-device – a chemical version of magic, if you will. It underpins and feeds both the world and the story of Osric Fingerbone, and does so quite well – not only accounting for some of the stranger aspects of Osric’s world, but doing so in a relatively logical and nicely rule-constricted way.

Whereas in his previous books Jarvis had perhaps allowed the story to run on for longer than necessary, and for the number of characters to become unwieldy, in Osric we find a shorter, much more concise novel with a manageable number of entities to keep track of. The story never runs out of steam and the plot draws you on page by page. The chapter headings are quite effectively used, not to give the chapters dramatic names which only serve to give part of the plot away, but instead just to name the location. If the scene takes place in a train carriage several miles away from Londun, it jolly well tells you so right at the start of the chapter. If the character has no idea where they are, then the chapter heading helpfully gives no clue about it.

Osric Fingerbone himself is charismatic enough to hold a book together by himself, but surprisingly it is our main protagonist Edward Sax, ‘the boy murderer’ and  Robin to Osric’s Batman (to make a quaint allusion), who has a bit more character to him than one would expect. Rather than being just another feeble Alex Rider-style reader wish-fulfilment insert character through which we have to experience a better character, Edward Sax has a certain sharp personality to him, a genuinely unpleasant backstory, and a functioning dynamic with the other characters particularly in regards to Osric Fingerbone. Meanwhile the other characters in the story all have their uses to the book as a whole; particularly the strange denizens of the Undercity whose twisted sense of honour provides one of the more memorable sequences.

Overall, Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer is good. The characters are all there, the plot is intriguing, the pacing excellent, the dialogue convincing, and the world is a detailed and unnerving place. There’s not really much more I can add that won’t spoil the book or lead me to try and make vague comparisons to Sherlock Holmes or the gothic/horror of the Victorian era, so by all means go out there and buy yourself a copy Jarvis’ latest work.

Bibliochemy

Jarvis, Michael Israel. Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer. Taravatara Publishing (2014)