Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl: 1 - Tapa dura

"A triumph of the modern pulp genre. Funny, clever and superbly executed...I guarantee you'll have fun as you breeze through this first adventure of Gideon Smith, and I commend it to you all. I'm already anxious for the next one."
--George Mann, author of "The Immortality Engine"
"A great-hearted, rollicking romp through the many worlds of classic pulp--loads of fun."
--Nick Harkaway, author of "The Gone-Away World" and "Angelmaker"

19th-century London is the centre of a vast British Empire. Airships ply the skies and Queen Victoria presides over three-quarters of the known world. London might as well be a world away from Sandsend, a tiny village on the Yorkshire coast. Gideon Smith dreams of the adventure promised him by the lurid tales of Captain Lucian Trigger, the Hero of the Empire, told in Gideon's favourite 'penny dreadful'. When Gideon's father is lost at sea in highly mysterious circumstances Gideon is convinced that supernatural forces are at work.