Aberystwyth University Professor Matthew Francis has released an historical crime fiction novel set in Victorian London's gaslit theatre scene.

‘Nocturn with Gaslamps’ sees ghosts lurking in the shadows as murder takes centre stage.

Hastings Wimbury has always dreamt of playing Hamlet, but works as a theatre gas-boy, tending to a chandelier so powerful it creates its own weather, and limelight machines that can throw a shadow 10 miles away.

When Hastings disappears, his fiancée Flora sets out to find him with the help of love rival Cassie, who is more preoccupied with the ghosts terrorising the streets of London. Soon total darkness is imposed upon the city, and they realise something far more sinister is at hand…

Set in Victorian London during the dark and bloody time of Jack the Rippler and Sherlock Holmes, the novel explores advances in gaslight technology; 1,300 London gas lamps are still maintained by British Gas using 200-year-old traditions.

Matthew is a poet, novelist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. The author of seven poetry collections, three novels and a collection of short stories, he also edited W.S. Graham's New Collected Poems, and authored a study of Graham, Where the People Are.

His third novel, ‘Nocturne with Gaslamps’, arose out of his lifelong fascination with night, darkness and sleep. His starting point was the legend of a land of perpetual darkness, mentioned by Homer and writers of the Middle Ages. Combining that with his love of Victorian novelists like Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins, he came up with the idea of a story in which the forces of literal darkness were pitted against the extraordinary Victorian technology of gaslamps, which introduced light pollution to the modern world.

Other elements - female detectives, a theatre-obsessed young man, the manipulative Count and prowling ghosts - arose naturally from the theme.

The book aims to capture the atmosphere of late nineteenth-century London, and combine suspense and entertainment in the way that the best Victorian novelists do.

Matthew has written a range of fiction, short stories and poetry, and in 2004 he was chosen as one of the Next Generation poets.

He lives with this wife in Aberystwyth where he enjoys playing chess, cooking, and playing the ukulele.

‘Nocturn with Gaslamps’ is available now.

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