Review: The Curious Case of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, by Lisa Tuttle

Review: The Curious Case of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, by Lisa Tuttle

by Rich Horton

Lisa Tuttle began publishing with a story in a Clarion anthology in 1972, and in the ensuing years built a reputation as one of the field's most interesting writers, mostly at shorter lengths though she published several novels. I hadn't read any of her novels (except her collaboration with George R. R. Martin, Windhaven) though I kept track of her short fiction over the decades, and a while back I noticed two entertaining stories in large anthologies edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. These two stories were about a pair of investigators of supernatural crimes in the late Victorian Era, Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane, and they were lots of fun.

However, I never learned that she had published three novels about the two until last year. The reason is simple enough -- the books aren't available (except in ebook form) in the US. I went ahead and bought the first in the series, The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, from 2016. (The sequels are The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross (2017) and The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies (2023).) It took me until now to get around to reading the first book, though. 

The Curious Case of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief is an origin story for the Jesperson and Lane partnership (though it was already established in the two previously published short stories.) Miss Lane is the primary narrator, and as the novel opens she has left her position with the Society of Psychical Research (SPR) because she has learned that her friend and mentor, Gabrielle Fox, is willingly to abet psychic frauds. Miss Lane heads to London in need of a job -- and she sees Jasper Jesperson's advertisement, looking for an assistant in his private detective business. Jesperson is a young man, living with his mother, and a man of apparent ability but unable to hold a conventional job. He and his mother are down to their last few pounds -- but they gladly welcome Miss Lane into the business, and their house. I should add that this is about 1890, and Arthur Conan Doyle is publishing the Sherlock Holmes stories -- which server as a sort of model for Jesperson and Lane.

But starting a business is tricky, and finally in desperation they see if their landlord will extend credit on their rent if they investigate any problems he has. And fortuitously there is something to look into -- their landlord's brother-in-law has been sleepwalking. Perhaps they can see what might have caused this? Is there something sinister behind it?

So that's the somnambulist. What about the psychic thief? Again somewhat fortuitously, Gabrielle Fox reenters the picture. She is back in London, and she is with a woman who claims to have psychic powers. Soon she has invited Miss Lane to a séance. And things start to get crazy: psychics are being kidnapped. A couple of them even seem to have real powers. And an American psychic, with a Russian princess for a wife, seems particularly powerful -- and, soon, particularly interested in Miss Lane.

This is all quite fun stuff. The Victorian milieu is well enough depicted -- I've been buried in Victorian fiction for a while now and the real stuff is inevitably more convincing but Tuttle didn't throw me out of the novel with anything too silly. The two main characters are very much worth spending time with. The mystery -- is just OK, I have to say. (Once magic is involved it's harder to keep mysteries properly mysterious!) Having said that, the setpiece climax is quite nicely done. I'll be getting around to the sequels sooner or later.