The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder

Hodder not only shifts focal characters, he shifts styles from steampunk mystery to … something different. Hodder reveals the background and it is just as interesting a character under greater scrutiny as it was when his true nature was mysterious. He was enigmatic and in many ways unknowable. Although his appearances were few in the first half, Jack had a major impact driving the narrative. Here, Hodder could have easily dropped the ball. The second half of the story focuses on Spring Heeled Jack himself. The first half of the novel does a fine job of setting the stage and bringing Richard Burton and Algernon Swineburne together, this novel is after all the first in Hodder’s chronicles of their adventures together. Though his appearances are limited through the first half of the novel, Jack has more of a boogeymanish air to the characters, particularly Sir Richard Burton, who encounter him. Regardless, the character has strong ties to the Victorian era and lends very well to being the center of a steampunk novel, which is the case here in Hodder’s novel. The urban legend is the Spring-Heeled Jack of the title, the creatures out of folklore are werewolves, and the real life hero is protagonist Sir Richard Burton, among others.įor those not in the know, Spring-Heeled Jack is a mythical character/creature of English Victorian folklore described by some as a boogeyman and others as a hero. Urban legends, creatures out of folklore, and real life heroes converge in Mark Hodder’s fantastic debut novel, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder