In 1860 Tiny Tim has become Timothy Cratchit, now in his early twenties and largely recovered from the affliction that threatened his life in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol.”
Louis Bayard has crafted an absorbing thriller borrowing characters from the Dickens Christmas masterpiece and reflecting the Victorian era in both splendor and grimy earthiness.
The adult Tim is quite different from the poignant, sweet Tiny Tim. Grief-stricken after the recent death of his father, Timothy dreams that he spots Bob Cratchit on the streets of London.
Timothy is intrigued and concerned when he sees the dead bodies of two unidentified little girls, each with the letter “G” branded onto her shoulders. Later he finds another little girl, bearing the same brand, but very much alive.
The living waif is a 10-year old Italian-born orphan. Philomela speaks English poorly and appears unwilling to share the circumstances leading to the branding and some mysterious horror.
Timothy maintains a relationship with his brother and his wife and with their “Uncle” Ebenezer Scrooge, who provides a stipend for a favorite nephew. To make extra money, he enjoys the company of Captain Gully, a loner who makes a living dredging for bodies in the Thames. Timothy goes out on Gully’s cruises and helps with his gruesome commerce.
Joining them is another 10-year old, the street-smart Colin the Melodious, who makes occasional pence by singing and whose home apparently is the street.
Needing a place to stay, Timothy moves into a brothel in exchange for teaching the imperious madam, Ophelia Sharpe, how to read and write proper English.
Timothy soon learns that Philomela is being pursued and is terrified by evil forces neither of them understands. He finally takes the child to Captain Gully’s apartment as a Victorian age “safe house.” He and Colin set out to solve this mystery and protect the winsome Philomela.
What they uncover is an unsavory plot involving child molestation, abduction and murder. The unsettling truth is that the people behind these crimes are people of high station and in positions of authority. Timothy finally has to turn to his wily but feeble uncle and his family for guidance and protection for Philomela.
“Mr. Timothy” is an absorbing tale, a thriller with all the twists and turns of modern day spy novels. Bayard employs a modified style of the Dickens era but it lacks the stilted affectation of a day long gone. In its place, he substitutes a stimulating description of a world where the classes were widely divergent but strangely mingled.
Helping to get the reader in the mood is the timing several days prior to Christmas, with Uncle Ebenezer expecting everyone at his house for a holiday dinner.
What lends greatly to this immensely readable volume is tongue in cheek humor, spread with generosity.
In a courtroom, for example, Timothy notes that: “The clerk is a wizened, furious man, with a scowl carved all the way down his short, bent frame. He holds the Bible like a banker, and as soon as the oath is complete, he retracts the loan with a violence born of equal parts revulsion and satisfaction.”
Born in Albuquerque, Bayard grew up in Virginia and earned a degree in English literature at Princeton, where he studied under Joyce Carol Oates. He holds a Master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern.
The author, who lives in Washington, has worked as a congressional press secretary and speechwriter. His previous novels are “Fool’s Errand” and “Endangered Species.”
Florence Gilkeson may be reached at florence @thepilot.com.
