493 is a thief in London England, 1875. He uses two identities and London’s newly opened sewer system to perform mostly dull and simple crimes. In London the sweet life is only one sin away, but how long will 493’s charade last? Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman had an intriguing storyline but lacked action. It was slowly driven and the characters motives and depth were null and void. Though the potential was huge, the end product was not.
As I stated earlier I feel the character building was poor. The characters were not driven enough to make the story plausible and their pasts are unspoken of. This made some sections of the story quite dull and unenjoyable. I also wrote that the story was slow, the character’s non-existent motives drawing any action out. There is no real conflict throughout the book because 493’s crimes are uninteresting and don’t have much detail or action. This slow tempo continues throughout the novel and there is no suspense or mystery to keep you interested. At some points in the story I felt as if Updale was going to elaborate on some personality disorders/conflict between Montmorency and Scarper. But this small observation never developed into a fully blown idea. What a loss!
This book may not have been my favourite but it does have merits. It was strong in the area of imagination. The author (Eleanor Updale) had an idea and pursued the topic until the end. The book may have been dull but it was understandable and clear, the vocabulary was vivid and yet I didn’t need a dictionary. I particularly enjoyed the length of this book as well. It expressed many ideas in a concise story, that ended when it really needed to!
“ ‘You have completed your sentence, and it is time for you to return to the world outside…’ And so, suddenly, he wasn’t 493 anymore.”
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