Veronica Britton

by Niall Boyce

Veronica Britton is a Victorian private detective, a specialist in untangling tricky situations that occur in time as well as space. Working alongside her young apprentice Gabrielle Pendleton, she's very much in if a necklace goes missing and you suspect that someone is selling it off in the future as a valuable antique, or you find yourself being blackmailed by someone who knows a little too much about your past, she's your woman.

Smart, efficient and (almost) always discreet, Veronica is the best chronic detective in London. Time travel is an open secret in the city and operates under the supervision of the Ministry, an obscure branch of the British government. Veronica does her best to avoid the Ministry’s agents, but recently they have started to follow her a little too closely. As she navigates the ‘timepools’ of London, Veronica soon uncovers a series of mysteries that are strangely interconnected; a fiendish plot that threatens not just the city, but the whole world. Only by facing up to the secrets of her past can Veronica Britton save the future.

Veronica Britton is steam punk at its smart, funny and escapist, with a little something for everyone to enjoy.

Genres: Fantasy

Audible Audio

First published November 16, 2012

About the author

N.P. Boyce is a writer and editor based in London. He’s previously published short stories in magazines including Litro and Dark Horizons, and with Big Finish’s Doctor Who and Bernice Summerfield ranges. He has also provided non-fiction material for Classic Doctor Who DVDs. Other related work includes journal articles on artists such as the cartoonist Ronald Searle and the Victorian painter Richard Dadd.

Reviews

[Gavin Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely packed with ideas and interesting action, but, quite hard to follow. Veronica Britton reads a lot like a modern BBC sci fi series idea, the time travelling, language, worlds and characters would not be a bit out of place on the screen and sort of sits somewhere between a femme fatale doctor who and something more akin to a Neil Gaiman effort. As a character Veronica Britton is superbly layed out and complimented by the sidekick Gabrielle Pendleton. As I said, with the amount of goings on it was a bit hard to follow, but, and although not the kind of novel that normally catches my attention, I did go back and give it a second go, finding it much easier to get to grips with and then, as a result, and with a little help of it being split into sections all concentrating more on separate parts, really entertaining. Follow on? I hope so.

[Cherry Potts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veronica Britton fits in with Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next. The tone is very similar, the style is not unlike. I quite enjoyed the plot, but I frequently felt that I was reading a script for a video game and that there was a better book struggling to get out. I was occassionally reminded of Gaiman's Neverwhere, at which point my spirits rose, and I liked the basic concept of the fluidity of time and London as a character within the story, (and particularly King Lud) but it all got a bit Terminatoresque. Entertaining but a bit shallow.