Described as "a remarkable adventure edged with magic", The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach struggled to achieve that aim. Following the life of Mr Thomas Peach in the late 18th century, the story surrounds the intrigue in the character about why no one ever sees his wife, his interest in the society of learned men he is part of, and what he does out of sight of the townspeople. The protagonist is submerged in secrets and it is only for the narrator and reader to find out what those secrets are, revealing that his suspected cruelty is far from it and his sinister interests may just be a mere curiosity.
Thomas Peach's story doesn't seem to be about any sort of unique man that was chosen in particular because of any feat he achieved in life. He doesn't seem like the kind of character that makes a mark on history. Instead, the story reads a lot like a biography of a random man plucked from obscurity in 18th century England who was just a little bit more interesting than any other. The only reason it seems to make sense is that the narrator/historian seems to have derived their history from a randomly chosen gravestone, picking a name with no significance behind it but significant enough that the burial seems to be an important one. In the end, it's barely even that.
All throughout the novel, it seemed to flit in and out of different genres of the time, never quite clearly settling on one and rather than making it work well, it falls quite flat. At times it reads like general historical fiction, then it becomes a historical crime thriller before emulating the key components of a classic gothic novel which was gaining popularity at the time this book is set. The execution of genre construction in the novel was quite weak and it can be quite tedious to read because you're never sure of what you are reading and in this case that is a negative trait for a book. It jumps back and forth between different historical fiction genres and a historian's biography and by the end, even with all mysterious details ironed out, it still doesn't feel like the book made sense or was tied up in any way. The structure still fell apart.
The one thing that did intrigue me more than anything was the narrative style. We are constantly told that it is a historian narrating to the reader, as though they have studied Thomas Peach's life firsthand and are recording it on the pages. Interestingly, it doesn't feel like there is a narrator there, rather it is the page itself speaking to the reader, it is the page where the words are recorded that is communicating with whoever will read its contents. There is no third party, the page is not the middle man between the reader and the historian trying to communicate with them. Over 450 pages of this book and I still can't get my head around how Treadwell managed that, it is a very unique form of writing and I'd love to see it used in a book with a better story.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Fans of historical fiction
- Narrative style
- A little something called "necromantic history"
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