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NOCTURNE Author: Mel Keegan 459pp, 6" x 9"; ebook - approx. 200,000 words
5 out of 5 Reviewed by Yancy Carpentier
Vast in concept, rich in literary characterization and design, Mel Keegan’s historical novel, “Nocturne,” is a lushly sensual archway into mysterious midnight worlds and the grandeur that was the 19th century. I am a student of the 18th and 19th centuries. A novel must be as adventurous, intriguing and complex as history itself if it is to lure me away from my text books. Spanning not years, but centuries, Keegan’s “Nocturne” achieves all these goals and more. Vincent Bantry returns a captain and a war hero from the arcane and perilous Far East. The year is 1892. In London, a young adventurer is always the darling of society. Yet opium smugglers and Manchurian warlords did not prepare him for the pain, struggle and treachery foretold by the Tarot cards – any more than his experiences as a leader of men could counter the attraction he felt for the young Irish occultist, Michael Flynn. Seduced by the mystery, Bantry rushes toward the danger; even as a tangled web of deceit and cruelty threatens to destroy them both. It is Flynn who is beautiful, brilliant, exotic, and unlike anyone he has ever known. And it is his strange world of the occult, in all its midnight grandeur, that Bantry glimpses and desires. The richness of it all! Keegan’s panoramic canvas spans the continents. Unique characters, exotic locations, memorable prose and attention to detail convey the 19th century, and the centuries before, as it could or should have been. The joyful spirit of romantic music, art, history and literature are woven thoughtfully and seamlessly into a thrilling and compelling tale of adventure, romance, intrigue and the supernatural. Given the breadth of this saga, I would have liked to have read more about those living in the safe houses in Copenhagen, Alexandria, Capri, Vienna, Coruña, and the palace on the Bosporus. However, that desire represents only my area of interest, and I can surely understand and appreciate the author’s focus of the story. For me, the sensual relationship between Vince and Michael, and their period of solitude in the Camargue, is particularly endearing. A handful of writers can imbue life in time and space, and Mel Keegan is one of them. ‘The Camargue seemed an infinity within itself, nothing but sky and water and tall grasses, its herds of ponies and fighting bulls strung out along the shorelines like toy animals on a child’s miniature landscape.’ Now step into the glittering midnight world of the Ancient. Vastly imaginative, rich in historical detail, endearing always, “Nocturne” is a novel you will want to read again and again. I know I have.
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