Reviews

Black Butterfly: A Secret Service Thriller by Mark Gatiss

wendleness's review against another edition

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4.0

Lucifer Box. He's a joy, really. A hilarious, naughty, action-packed joy. I read The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber years ago and loved them, so it was a pretty safe bet I would love Black Butterfly as well. Which I did.

The plot can be as convoluted and ridiculous as it likes, so long as I have the pun-tastic wit of Lucifer Box running throughout.

This book is purely for fun, and it delivers in huge doses. Sniggers, chortles, smiles and shoulder-shaking laughter. It managed to illicit them all out of me. Plus a few eye rolls and cringes, but I swear I was smiling the whole time.

If you want a light-hearted, funny and bit of a naughty read, Lucifer Box is just what you're looking for.

unevendays's review against another edition

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4.0

A right rollicking read - while Lucifer may be older now, he doesn't compromise on either lechery or action. I still love the 'Sherlock Holmes' style references to improbably-named old cases.

kjcharles's review against another edition

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DNF three chapters in. I remember enjoying the first in this series though I now can't imagine why. Lots of 'is it really misogynist if I do it with lots of irony'. (Yes. Yes, it is.) Also there's a fine line between parodying racist colonialist sexist pulp and seeming like you just really want to write it. Also also, this seems to have been edited by spellcheck given the homonym errors, though admittedly the 'conga eel' made me laugh, which is more than the jokes did. No, I did not enjoy this, why do you ask.