Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
305th out of 738 books
—
1,613 voters
The Bedlam Detective (Sebastian Becker #2)
Madmen see monsters – and monsters hide in plain sight
From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital,Sebastian Becker investigates wealthy eccentrics whose dubious mental health may render them unable to manage their own affairs.His interview with rich landowner Sir Owain Lancaster, whose sanity has been in question since a disastrous scientific adventure...more
From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital,Sebastian Becker investigates wealthy eccentrics whose dubious mental health may render them unable to manage their own affairs.His interview with rich landowner Sir Owain Lancaster, whose sanity has been in question since a disastrous scientific adventure...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
February 7th 2012
by Crown
(first published January 28th 2012)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,961)
The subtitle is a bit confusing: this is a novel as much as it is a mystery (and this goes back to the question I've been asking for the past year or so - why are we using "a novel" as a subtitle? is there the risk we can't tell fact from fiction?).
There are two intertwined questions here, the first being "who killed the two little girls, and how is this related to the assaults on Grace and Evangeline years ago?" and "is Sir Owain insane?". Our hero is, of course, concerned that perhaps the answ...more
There are two intertwined questions here, the first being "who killed the two little girls, and how is this related to the assaults on Grace and Evangeline years ago?" and "is Sir Owain insane?". Our hero is, of course, concerned that perhaps the answ...more
2 likes · like · see review
view 1 comment
Madness, insane asylums and post-Victorian London; three things that have me salivating to read a book! The Bedlam Detective was no disappointment. A crossover between historical fiction and mystery, this book is more on the literary side to please those looking for historical/mystery rather than mystery/thriller. While I didn't find it a page turning read, I did find it an engrossing read with a clever mystery at its centre. Essentially a story of madness, as encountered in the post-Victorian e...more
NorCal Digital Library System.
I didn't expect to enjoy this very much, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I did. I was desperate for a book to read and this was available via library ebook loan so I grabbed it, never having heard of the author before. It turned out to be fabulously well-written, and interesting, kept me reading until I finished it basically in one sitting. Lots of historical information I hadn't known but found fascinating, as well.
My sole complaint is a major sp...more
I didn't expect to enjoy this very much, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I did. I was desperate for a book to read and this was available via library ebook loan so I grabbed it, never having heard of the author before. It turned out to be fabulously well-written, and interesting, kept me reading until I finished it basically in one sitting. Lots of historical information I hadn't known but found fascinating, as well.
My sole complaint is a major sp...more
Happy Thursday! Annabelle here, trying to stay cool in this Southern heat. Actually, it's hot all over our fair nation, but I've got the very thing to send cold chills down your spine even if you read it out by the swimming pool. It's called The Bedlam Detective, by author Stephen Gallagher, and it was just published earlier this year.
Set in 1912, the novel introduces Sebastian Becker, a former Pinkerton detective who now works for London's notorious Bethlehem Hospital, an insane asylum which w...more
Set in 1912, the novel introduces Sebastian Becker, a former Pinkerton detective who now works for London's notorious Bethlehem Hospital, an insane asylum which w...more
Stephen Gallagher is the English writer of several novels and television scripts, including for the BBC television series Doctor Who for which he wrote two serials, Warriors' Gate (1981) and Terminus (1983). He is also very active in crime fiction area and The Bedlam Detective is his latest work.
A Brief Summary:
From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital, Sebastian Becker investigates wealthy eccentrics whose dubious mental health may render them unable to manage their own af...more
A Brief Summary:
From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital, Sebastian Becker investigates wealthy eccentrics whose dubious mental health may render them unable to manage their own af...more
I got this one as a proof through a Good Reads giveaway. It seemed right up my alley. I did enjoy the book and I may read the final version just to see if some holes could be filled or some things tied together better. The main character, Sebastian Becker, I liked and could see him as a continual character in a series. I was surprised about what happened to his wife, and thought that maybe that was because Sebastian and Evangeline were going to end up romantically involved. However there was a w...more
1 like · like · see review
This is, in the parlance of its setting, a cracking good read. Set in 1912, it has a pleasantly dark cast throughout the whole story, giving the reader the impression of hunting madness alongside Sebastien in the Smoke. There's an authenticity to "The Bedlam Detective" that belies some of the more extreme plot points - the characters don't come off as modern people in fancy historical dress. From Sebastien's casual dismissal of native cultures to the imperial fancies of Sir Owain, the impression...more
Gallagher writes an easy-to-read mystery, with characters interesting enough to propel the reader into his strange story.
The mystery involves the killing of two young girls in a seaside resort. There are long-time rumors of a terrible beast in the nearby woods, a pair of young women who survived a similar attack years before, and a potential madman who lives in the decaying grand manor house. There's more than a hint of the supernatural, McGuffins aplenty and 1920s London for a backdrop.
There wa...more
The mystery involves the killing of two young girls in a seaside resort. There are long-time rumors of a terrible beast in the nearby woods, a pair of young women who survived a similar attack years before, and a potential madman who lives in the decaying grand manor house. There's more than a hint of the supernatural, McGuffins aplenty and 1920s London for a backdrop.
There wa...more
2 likes · like · see review
Sebastian Becker is "Special Investigator for the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy” and works from his tiny office in the basement of Bethlehem Hospital. His main focus is to investigate eccentric wealthy "clients" whose mental health is questionable. Trained as a Pinkerton Detective Sebastian has moved back to his wife’s home of London in the hopes that his “special needs” son can get the help he needs. Sir Owain Lancaster is Sebastian’s current case, trying to weed through truth and imagina...more
The book (and its main character) surprised me. While this is a mystery/thriller, it is also much like Alex Grecian's The Yard which delves into the personal lives and domestic difficulties of working as a detective of any kind on the salary that the government paid in 1912. Sebastian Becker is quite a complex man, and his domestic arrangements must have been like many during his day. He lives in rented rooms; his wife and sister-in-law must bring in an income to supplement Becker's, and then th...more
Sir Owain Lancaster goes to South America on a scientific expedition, suffers the loss of wife, child and almost all his men, and comes home a changed man, to the point that now, in 1913, his sanity is in question. Sebastian Becker, ex-Pinkerton agent and current investigator to the Masters of Lunacy, whose remit it is to determine if British noblemen have gone insane and should be relieved of their property and placed in care, arrives on the scene. To complicate matters, two young girls are kid...more
Very good on several levels. The book takes place in several times and places and in each there is a feeling of suspense that is chilling. The book hints at a past and the characters are being groomed for a future. I can see several characters who could live on in other books. The main character is the detective Sebastian who has lived a series of previous lives and each would be enough for a well rounded series. I was very taken with his son Robert. This could be the basis for his own place in...more
I liked it.
Any book that opens with a train car of circus-ey oddities, one of which is an cracked jar of oozing formaldehyde, threatening the integrity of a pair of conjoined twins can't be bad, right?
I was also quite pleased to read a turn of the century novel without reading long winded chapters about Marconi. Sorry Mr. Larson, I was not a fan of Thunderstruck.
Lastly, any book that references Wales is OK with me. You see I used to live there and I feel comfortable in my non-conformist-ness by...more
Any book that opens with a train car of circus-ey oddities, one of which is an cracked jar of oozing formaldehyde, threatening the integrity of a pair of conjoined twins can't be bad, right?
I was also quite pleased to read a turn of the century novel without reading long winded chapters about Marconi. Sorry Mr. Larson, I was not a fan of Thunderstruck.
Lastly, any book that references Wales is OK with me. You see I used to live there and I feel comfortable in my non-conformist-ness by...more
Feb 25, 2013
Jodi
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2013-audiobooks,
audiobook
The title is a misnomer as Bedlam has little to do with it. Sebastian Becker is a former Pinkerton detective in the States now in London as the Visitor in Lunacy. He visits people declared incompetent to see if that is accurate. He then reports back to the home office. From a non-medical perspective. When he arrives to investigate Sir Owain, he discovers the town up in arms with two preteen girls missing. The search has a bad end with the bodies found on Sir Owain's property. It isn't the first...more
Sebastion Becker, an ex-Pinkerton detective now works for the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy, examining wealthy or prominent men to see if they should be declared lunatics and their estates taken over. He goes to Arnmouth to examine Sir Owain Lancaster, whose estate is falling into disrepair. Sir Owain led an expedition to the Amazon. He and one other man returned, and Sir Owain was laughed out of the Royal Society, and wrote a book about the trip and how everyone, including his wife and so...more
Set in England in the early part of the 20th century, the main character in this book, Sebastian Becker, is a former Pinkerton detective who has returned to his native Britain and now works as an investigator who determines whether or not the subject of his research is to be classifies as a 'lunatic' in which case, a guardian must be identified to run his affairs. In this story, Becker travels to a seaside resort to conduct his inquiry into the affairs of a local landowner, Sir Owain Lancaster,...more
A tidy, inoffensive mystery, The Bedlam Detective is as well-written as they come. The sentences had correct punctuation, the plot flowed, and everything wrapped up nicely in the end. If I had written it, I would no doubt be immensely proud and brag to all my friends. However, when I think back on it, I really would have loved it, not merely liked, if the characters had developed more: Sebastian, the American protagonist living in England as an investigator of wealthy eccentrics in questionable...more
I very much enjoyed this novel! The characters drew me in, the settings and atmosphere were compelling and effective, the pace and tension were well-handled. It's an entertaining and powerful exploration of the relationship between perception and reality. Just about everything in this book was masterfully done - and I now have a new author to get into. I can't wait to read the rest of his work!
But there's the ending...
The challenge with any mystery story is to make the ending a surprise - but it...more
But there's the ending...
The challenge with any mystery story is to make the ending a surprise - but it...more
By Stephen Gallagher
Random House, 306 pgs
978-0-307-40665-1
Submitted by Random House
Rating: 2.75
Britain, 1912, anxiety and paranoia are running high in the build-up to World War I. Arnmouth is a small coastal town where children have a tendency to periodically turn up missing and/or dead. Our hero is Sebastian Becker, Special Investigator to the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy. Yep, that's right, Visitor in Lunacy, which makes it sound as if Becker himself is the loon, he just doesn't stay lo...more
Random House, 306 pgs
978-0-307-40665-1
Submitted by Random House
Rating: 2.75
Britain, 1912, anxiety and paranoia are running high in the build-up to World War I. Arnmouth is a small coastal town where children have a tendency to periodically turn up missing and/or dead. Our hero is Sebastian Becker, Special Investigator to the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy. Yep, that's right, Visitor in Lunacy, which makes it sound as if Becker himself is the loon, he just doesn't stay lo...more
I got this book from a Goodreads give-away. I liked the sound of the mystery with supernatural undertones. The settings created were able to establish a dark, forboding atmosphere to much of the novel. The atmosphere was one of the aspects of the novel that kept me as much on the edge of my seat as the plot twists.
The novel is the story of a man, Sebastian Becker, trying to gage the sanity of an eccentric adventureman for the English crown. In the course of his investigation he stumbles upon the...more
The novel is the story of a man, Sebastian Becker, trying to gage the sanity of an eccentric adventureman for the English crown. In the course of his investigation he stumbles upon the...more
Something about this story: Sebastian is real- he knows he has to look into a mystery and he has his own battles, that's what makes this story worth reading.
I liked: Robert (Becker's son- he is considered as a special needs person, but his intelligence helps his father crack the case.
I felt sad: when Becker's wife passed one, because I believe he needed her more than he let on.
The characters: are real- and they have their doubts about the case and it is a mystery within a mystery as you try and...more
I liked: Robert (Becker's son- he is considered as a special needs person, but his intelligence helps his father crack the case.
I felt sad: when Becker's wife passed one, because I believe he needed her more than he let on.
The characters: are real- and they have their doubts about the case and it is a mystery within a mystery as you try and...more
To be honest, I really just wanted this book to be longer. I thought the characters were really enjoyable and the mystery was interesting. And the whole issue of what happened on the trip to the Amazon was intriguing as well. Everything in the book was really well done, but I felt they could all have been developed more or maybe just expanded upon. And while the ending was good and made sense, it seemed like it sprang out of nowhere. The book rather reminded me of Wilkie Collins' Woman in White...more
There is a Difference Between Fact and Truth - and Stephen Gallagher Gets Us There...
"Mother's like a spring flower. That's not strictly a fact. But it is true." (p. 138)
This is a beautifully written book with a compelling mystery and one that I could hardly out down.
I won't dwell too much on the plot as one can hardly do so without spoiling it for a future reader.
Although it takes place in the early twentieth century this a thoroughly modern novel with emotions and aspects that men and women of...more
"Mother's like a spring flower. That's not strictly a fact. But it is true." (p. 138)
This is a beautifully written book with a compelling mystery and one that I could hardly out down.
I won't dwell too much on the plot as one can hardly do so without spoiling it for a future reader.
Although it takes place in the early twentieth century this a thoroughly modern novel with emotions and aspects that men and women of...more
Fantastically fun read - it moved quickly and kept me thoroughly entertained the entire time.
I was particularly impressed by the chapter that was an excerpt from the memoirs of Sir Owain - it was absolutely pitch perfect in tone and attitude - I felt transported to a Victorian adventurer's world, with the sense of patronizing self-importance and matter-of-factness. Really delightful.
The book does lose a star because it didn't quite carry that through *enough* - it remained a mystery/thriller/adv...more
I was particularly impressed by the chapter that was an excerpt from the memoirs of Sir Owain - it was absolutely pitch perfect in tone and attitude - I felt transported to a Victorian adventurer's world, with the sense of patronizing self-importance and matter-of-factness. Really delightful.
The book does lose a star because it didn't quite carry that through *enough* - it remained a mystery/thriller/adv...more
Talk about a tough case; our detective is put to test trying to assess the mental health of a Peer of the Realm. Two girls are murdered on the Peer's estate and the Peer is suffering a break with reality following a harrowing journey down an Amazon tributary.
The story is compelling and the characters are rich and dimensional, but at times the random breaks into fantasy are a bit hard to follow. I like the former Pinkerton man turned investigator for the Office of Lunacy and I like his son Robert...more
The story is compelling and the characters are rich and dimensional, but at times the random breaks into fantasy are a bit hard to follow. I like the former Pinkerton man turned investigator for the Office of Lunacy and I like his son Robert...more
Wonderfully written, with just the right amount of historical fiction background. Starts with murder of two young girls; this crime is an echo of an earlier crime against two young girls who managed to survive--though with amnesia about the event. The main suspect--and the person the 'Bedlam Detective' is investigating--is a Scottish lord who led his family on a disastrous expedition in South America, and expedition that killed all but two people, the lord and his doctor. Some nice dream/reality...more
Gah!! I wanted to LOVE this book, but I didn't. There are so many missed opportunities! It's got good bones though (as in the structure of the piece, not the murders). There's a great premise, good characters, but it feels like we only get introduced to everyone. This feels more like a prequel to a series than a fully realized novel. There are a few major plot points that are just skimmed over that it feels like a missed opportunity to breathe real depth and humanity into the story. I like the s...more
The Bedlam Detective: A Novel is a fast-paced, dark mystery/thriller that blends the best parts of Victorian serials with a dash of steampunk adventure and a healthy dose of Lovecraftian horror.
Sebastian Becker, former detective and current employee of His Majesty's Visitor of Lunacy, is a tenacious and thorough person. But he is also a pragmatist. These brushstrokes are applied to the painting of the story in the first chapter, and form the base of everything that comes after.
Becker is sent to...more
Sebastian Becker, former detective and current employee of His Majesty's Visitor of Lunacy, is a tenacious and thorough person. But he is also a pragmatist. These brushstrokes are applied to the painting of the story in the first chapter, and form the base of everything that comes after.
Becker is sent to...more
Solid three stars here. The book has a gentleman's efficiency that cost some of the characters a bit more development. A decent mystery, and the idea of a monster chase as McGuffin is a near twist. I must admit, I was disappointed at first, due to the Dean Koontz blurb on the cover, but I found myself returning for the characters, especially the Detective's son who seems to be on the autistic spectrum. I think the pair would make a great reverse-Holmes detective team. Kudos to the strong but not...more
This was a Goodreads giveaway book that I received from Danielle Crabtree @ Crown Publishing. I really enjoyed the multi-dimensional characters and the parallel plots of the book.
I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read with quick hitting chapters, changing points of view, and strong dialogue. I can't say it was truly a period piece of fiction, as the setting could have been for anything from a film noir of the 40s to a modern day horror film to a Sherlock Holmes mystery to a scene in Brigadoon -...more
I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read with quick hitting chapters, changing points of view, and strong dialogue. I can't say it was truly a period piece of fiction, as the setting could have been for anything from a film noir of the 40s to a modern day horror film to a Sherlock Holmes mystery to a scene in Brigadoon -...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read It Forward: * THE BEDLAM DETECTIVE by Stephen Gallagher | 1 | 22 | Mar 05, 2012 02:27pm |
Also wrote two novelizations of his Doctor Who under the pseudonym John Lydecker.
** Photo by Lisa Bowerman **
More about Stephen Gallagher...
** Photo by Lisa Bowerman **
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“The man waxed his mustache. In Sebastian's book, that was never a good sign.”
—
2 people liked it
“Sebastian tried not to look too far ahead. Ambition was a young man's game. Theses days he was more concerned with the continuing survival and security of those he loved. It was no longer so much a matter of dreaming how high he might climb, as of always keeping in mind how far they might fall.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
