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LUCIFER BOX. He's tall, he's dark and, like the shark, he looks for trouble. Or so he wishes. For, with Queen Elizabeth newly established on her throne, the now elderly secret agent is reaching the end of his scandalous career. Despite his fast-approaching retirement, queer events leave Box unable to resist investigating one last case... Why have pillars of the Establishment started dying in bizarrely reckless accidents? Who are the deadly pay-masters of enigmatic assassin Kingdom Kum? And who or what is the mysterious Black Butterfly? From the seedy streets of Soho to the souks of Istanbul and the sun-drenched shores of Jamaica, Box must use his artistic licence to kill and eventually confront an enemy with its roots in his own notorious past. Can Lucifer Box save the day before the dying of the light?… (more)
User reviews
But retirement is coming, Queen Elizabeth II is newly established on the throne, and pillars of the English Establishment have started dying in bizarre accidents. Lucifer Box is the only man for the job - from the back streets of Soho, to the souks of Istanbul and the sun and sand of Jamaica, Lucifer must confront an enemy with roots in his own past, and discover who is behind the enigmatic (and not unattractive by any means) assassin Kingdom Kum. All at the same time that he must deal with the news that his young son - Christmas Box - wants to be a Boy Scout of all things!
Aging Lucifer may be. Pressing retirement may be. Burdened with unexpected parental responsibility as he is. Confounded by his offspring's somewhat conservative pursuits, Box can be relied upon when duty calls. And there are some duties that could only be resolved by a man of the eclectic tastes and experiences of Box. But this case, with the dangerous and desirable Kingdom Kum stalking his every move comes with a level of personal threat that Box would shrug off in his younger days.
Of course there's very very little that's serious in these books, and that's exactly why they are so fantastic. BLACK BUTTERFLY is as crazy, energetic and risqué as the earlier two books - all the action, suspense, thrills, spills, love and yearning, lust and sex, delivered in the same wonderful, slightly tongue in cheek fashion. I do confess a considerable feeling of sadness if this is, in fact, the last ever Lucifer Box book. I really can see how he could be called upon to perform yet more daring deeds - from his wheelchair in his dotage if necessary.
If you're a fan of crazy puns and tongue in cheek humour, and don't mind a little, shall we say unorthodox personal lifestyle choices, then BLACK BUTTERFLY and the two earlier books - THE VESUVIUS CLUB and THE DEVIL IN AMBER could be just the thing. You're certainly in for a bit of a fun treat. It might be best if you could read the books in order as they are set in vastly different time periods (Edwardian, the 1920's and finally the 1950's and you do get a bit of a feeling of the different time settings) but it's probably not strictly necessary if you're having trouble tracking down any of them.
I was never sure about the idea of having each part of the trilogy set at a different time of Box's life. In Black Butterfly Box is struggling to accept the fact that he can't get up to the full range of antics that he enjoyed in his youth, and as a reader I also regretted that Box here is clearly past his prime.
The plot is a little too slap dash for its own good and the book feels that Gatiss wrote it on a bit a whim whilst preoccupied with weightier matters. Recommended only for fans of the first two.
'Well,' she drawled, 'not like the bloody old days, is it? Stuck behind desk fiddling with paper-clips. I bet you'd give a year of your life just for a nice juicy assassination!'
I shook my head. 'Time to
But scarcely had the words left my lips when I felt a sudden heat on mt cheek, and my smeary glass exploded as a 9mm bullet slammed not the bar.
For the third book in the series, we have skipped forwards to 1953 and the end of Lucifer's career. Lucifer has risen to be "Joshua Reynolds" (the pseudonym of the spy master in charge of the Royal Academy), but he is facing retirement and the Royal Academy is about to be absorbed into MI6. When an old friend dies in a car crash due to uncharacteristically risky driving, and a pillar of the establishment suddenly goes crazy, firing a gun in a crowded bar and stealing Lucifer's car, Lucifer follows a suspect to Istanbul and gets drawn into one last case.
It was quite funny, but I don't think the plot hangs together as well as in the first two books.
Mark Gatiss is openly gay himself so his gay love scenes are more convincing than his heterosexual ones and Lucifer is not altogether convincing as a straight Don Juan. Nor is the cold war his metier - I wish Mr Box had been left to particpate in the Great Game when the Empire was at its hieght, when Victoria was on the throne and Oscar Wilde was alive instead of being forced to grow old as others grow old... I suspect the vain Lucifer would have prefered that too.
I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy but felt somewhat let down by it's sequel so my expectations weren't too high going into this third outing for the spoofed up Bondian superspy. It probably lived up to what I was expecting and may have even exceeded them a little after getting past the long-winded set-up. The plot lies somewhere between the aforementioned Bond and an Austin Powers movie involving an enemy from Lucifer's past, a scouting Jamboree and a few exotic locations. While not laugh out loud funny there are a few smirks to be had along the way but if character names such as those already mentioned as well as Kingdom Kum, Whitley Bey and Melissa ffawthawte don't float your boat then it's probably best to steer clear.