The Masquerades of Spring
ISBN: 9781473224407
Description
Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young - fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad - as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps. That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone - which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows.
Reviewed on 16th September 2024
A fascinating prequel to the Rivers of London series in which we visit prohibition-era New York, see the Nightingale in full action, and learn quite a lot of history too.
It’s not quite what I was expecting from seeing previous descriptions of this novella from the author, but I thoroughly enjoyed in nonetheless.
We meet up with a Bertie Wooster type character, a minor practitioner, who has popped over to New York for a while and found himself naturally living in privilege, for the most part. Until the Nightingale appears and sets him off on a complex and daring mission.
My favourite thing though was the amount I learnt about the era, and particularly how the authorities treated various subcultures, and how those communities acted in defiance. There’s a number of interesting realities slipped in between the fantastic that made it educational and entertaining.
