Review of DANGEROUS by Essie Fox (New Release)

4 Stars 

Because I majored in English literature, it is no surprise that I enjoy novels which use English writers as main characters. In Dangerous, a gothic thriller, Lord Byron, one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, is the protagonist.

Lord Byron, famous poet and infamous philanderer, has taken refuge in Venice. When two women with wounds on their throats are found dead, rumours spread that Byron may be the killer. The recent publication of a novel entitled The Vampyre, written in a style similar to Byron’s, has people speculating that the book is autobiographical. When his own life and that of his daughter are threatened, he has to play detective to find out who is behind the crimes.

The novel employs many of the common plot elements of gothic fiction. There’s violent death, vengeful persecution, and imprisonment. Gothic literature often uses a framing device, a story within a story to create mystery and suspense; in Dangerous, manuscripts are discovered in a crypt.

The novel is so rich in gothic atmosphere. Byron lives in an old, decaying palazzo where some rooms smell of rot and damp. Byron’s valet is convinced there are ghosts in the palazzo. When it is hot, the canals stink. Rats from the canals are known to invade buildings. And “So many villains with stilettos crept through Venice, sleek as rats. The sort of men who’d stab a man then push him into a canal without the slightest pang of guilt.” Byron spends some time in a prison where he becomes inured to his surroundings, “barely noticing the tickle of [rats’] whiskers, or the needle sting of pain when, now and then, one tried nibbling his toes. The same with the bats roosting in rafters overhead, or the swarming buzz of flies hatched from maggots in the buckets full of slops and excrement.”

And then many of the events take place at night or in the shadows. I love these descriptions: “Now holding the lamp, the woman’s trembling hands caused its light to throw black shadows juddering around the walls. The dizzying effect left Byron feeling nauseous” and “Here, their shadows were distorted, two elongated silhouettes taking the form of freakish monsters, one of them more erect, his movements swift and elegant, whereas the other lagged behind, his sliding gait as sinister as some predatory beast” and “their shadows looked like phantoms trapped by the bars of cage.”

Byron was a flamboyant figure famous for his unconventional lifestyle. He was handsome but moody and irritable but also possessed a magnetic and affable personality. The author of this novel captures his many-faceted nature, portraying both his positive and negative traits. A friend tells him, “’you have always been a slave to your passions. I’ve often found your hedonistic tendencies to be offensive. But, deep down, inside your soul, I know you are an honest man.’” Byron is self-aware, acknowledging his life of dissipation, self-indulgence, and fitful passions. He has a sense of humour: he dismisses killing himself when he thinks of the resulting gore staining the boat’s upholstery and “Worse still, to imagine the pleasure it would bring to his mother-in-law.” He treats his servants well, admitting he has been fortunate to be born not just a man but a man of wealth: “As a man of wealth and fame, the rules were always in his favour with little consequence or danger, whereas for her – one careless night, and a young woman was abandoned to a world of pain and sorrow.” His personal life was full of scandal but there is a possible explanation for his behaviour because of what happened to him as a young boy.

Gothic fiction is not a genre I love, but I loved Essie Fox’s The Fascination (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2023/07/review-of-fascination-by-essie-fox.html) and this novel does not disappoint either. I thoroughly enjoyed it.