Savoring the bizarre

Quite a few fine novels have come this way of late, but nothing remotely resembling Jonathan Barnes' strange and wonderful "The Somnambulist." Variously a satire, an adventure, a mystery and a horror show, this first novel by a young Englishman is set in London in 1901. Its heroes are Edward Moon, a magician and amateur detective, and his friend and associate, known only as the Somnambulist.

Moon is middle-aged, losing his looks and past his prime. He hungers for a new case to revive his reputation. His mute but devoted friend the Somnambulist is 8 feet tall, hairless, prodigiously strong and addicted to milk. He may not be entirely human, since swords can pass through his body without causing him to bleed or show pain. Despite his name, the Somnambulist does not seem to sleepwalk, or if he does, I missed it.

Early in the story, Moon is approached by an albino named Skimpole, who works for a government security agency. London is in danger, Skimpole insists, and Moon must help save it. But Moon loathes the man and rejects his plea. "I consider myself a man open to the improbable," Skimpole tells Moon, and that is the only possible way to approach this novel.

Moon becomes friendly with one Thomas Cribb, a monstrously ugly man who claims to have lived in both the past and the future. ("You've no idea how complicated it is being me," he admits.) Others in the story include the Fiend, a condemned man in Newgate prison who is both a genius and grossly fat, and the equally corpulent Mrs. Puggsley, who runs the brothel that Moon patronizes. It caters to "special, unique tastes -- preferences which, to the innocent, unjaded eye of the reader, may seem distasteful and even repugnant."

Barnes amuses himself with writing lurid physical descriptions. Cribb, the time-traveler, "resembled a gargoyle crawled down from the roofs of the city and left to roam its streets with impunity." The Human Fly, a creature from a carnival, "seemed a second Caliban -- bestial, ferocious, his face covered with vomit-coloured lumps and scales." The aged doorman at the Survivors' Club "had huge eyebrows -- vast white things like spiky tadpoles mutated to a dozen times their normal size -- which hung precariously beneath his brow and cast strange shadows across his face." Good heavens, you say, is no one attractive in this novel? Well, Moon's sister Charlotte is something of a beauty, but that cannot save her from being threatened with a horrid fate.

Moon and the Somnambulist's investigation leads them into the fiendish conspiracy that the albino warned of. A cult that calls itself Love is planning an armed takeover of London. Led by a madman, Love's thousand-man army attacks the financial district, slaughtering stockbrokers as well as police. All the while, Moon is trying to save both his sister and the Somnambulist from various killers. Also, a creature that has been brought back from the dead joins the fray, leading to this memorable image: "He proved easy to follow since he left in his wake a trail of body parts (fingers, an ear, lumps of flesh and skin) as well as a lurid green track, like a giant upright snail." There is much that is strange, magical and darkly hilarious in this book, if one savors the bizarre.