Erudite is a word that inevitably springs to mind when reviewing a Mark Valentine story. His contribution to The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes is a case in point. Like Katherine Haynes' story (reviewed earlier), 'Mad Lutanist' references Thomas Love Peacock and the Romantics. The focus is on science this time, though - a Romantic obsession often overlooked, except for commentators on Frankenstein.
In this story regular readers of Valentine's stories are reacquainted with the Connoisseur, a sort of occult detective but not in the Carnacki or Silence mode. The Connoisseur uncovers and probes mysteries but these are seldom life-or-death affairs. In this case he teams up with his friend Tom, a lady who fixes clocks. Together they unravel the backstory of a fancy dial divided into eight points, which is connected to a folly called the Tower of Boreas. Along the way we learn of a lost Peacock text and are reminded of the role of the aeolian harp in the theories of Coleridge.
A supremely civilised story, this, and one that proves the stakes do not need to be high for a story to be compelling. I'm coming to the end of this excellent anthology, and I can already state that it holds up well against previous G&S/Sarob collaborations.
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