Lamplight: David Barrett

Lamplight

The first scene that sets the stage for more to come as a murderer flaunts the fact his reign of terror has just begun with number one. Meet Davy O’Shea whose job is to work as a Sparker for Nikola Tesla implementing his wireless electricity technology. He doubles as a lookout as a detective for Scotland Yard. Coming from his job as a Sparkler and checking on the church making sure it’s safe he runs into a strange man with a cart who leaves it for him with a message and a relic from the past that links him to King Arthur. The relic is the legendary Excalibur and touching it reveals he’s a descendant of him himself. But this is only the beginning as Davy experiences dreams related to the past, sees and hears visions of Arthur, and learns about the dreadful Jakobus Reaper as he was called back then. In the present Davy is needed to help a man named Steven unexpected help a woman who was attacked. But when at the location where she was assaulted she was gone just leaving a trail of blood. But he’s persistent and so is Steven finding her in the hospital and able to learn her name but unfortunately she passed. His wife Marie is a nurse at the hospital. Saddened he tells Steven as they make their way to the church and Father Hubert who has the answers to questions they might never ask, and a huge revelation and reveal becomes known. Both men will now join with those called The Keepers ad a scar on their hands, a ring that glows when they touch it, and a relic from the past ties them all to be descendent of the Round Table. A letter that the father has will enlighten Steven and connect him even more. But the answers might be in a cemetery where they will start and a ring that might hold its secrets. But Davy decided to go to the morgue and check out Emma’s body and what he sees when the ring touches her is the same glow that happened on his. Is she a descendant too? Plus having to investigate whether Tesla is embezzling money for his company TEA leaving Davy little time for much else.

It gets eerier when he thinks about what the morgue learned at the morgue and what caused Emma’s death Davy is determined to get answers and he and Steven find the cemetery in the letter his father mentioned.

Uncovering a spaldur at the cemetery and having Steven and Constable Jules allowed Davy to have someone namely Steven who understands what’s happening.

The author through Davy includes field notes that summary his findings and events throughout the investigation. Dr Thatcher the doctor at the hospital plays a pivotal role in explaining her findings about each victim. At the hospital Davy and Steven encounter in the morgue dr. Henry Jekyll and his alter ego when he drinks his potion the deadly Edward Hyde who is a killer but is he the one taking the lives of the women in such a ghastly and grotesque way? Throughout the novel Davy experiences visions of the actual murders as they happen, flashbacks to King Arthur and interacts with him and has visions that cause him to experience watching the killer takes his victims as your read one on page 193 and here the voice of Merlin saying: we will follow you to the end , till we stop him or till he succeeds.” Plus, more on page 194. Each victim we learn is missing a liver or another organ is it for the Harvesters?

We know Mr. . Hyde is a killer and that Dr: Jekyll was his maker, but how and why the author makes readers think he’s the killer when the methods of torture mirrors they of Jack the Ripper creates an interesting plot twist .

Meeting Nikola Tesla and spending time protecting him , meals in New York and the auction allows Davy you regain another artifact from the past linked to the descendants.

As an added twist and horrifying shock his wife Marie is kidnapped but who is behind it and a simple confession reveals more than readers will expect. The truth behind the murders was cleverly planned and enacted and mind control and brainwashing behind how this man was forced to help enact the murders controlled by a diabolical plot and killer. Part one ends and the epilogue lets you know the past will come forward in the present.

We meet Deck, Davy’s grandson who will now be tasked with continuing what his grandfather started and needs to finish as the past comes to him in the present and the visions are they real and the Tesler bulbs, the key, sword and ring will bring Deck into a present that author David Barrett will create in the next chapters of The Keepers.

Some endings are new beginnings as a simple Lamplight illuminated the London darkness but what will follow? Jack the Ripper: Alive or Dead? Will he return? A plot filled with surprises and linking it to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was unique and cleverly plotted. There is much more to learn as Davy, Father Hubert and Steven have made sure that the next generation will follow the path.

Fran Lewis just reviews