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The Unburied, 1999
Essentially a classic whodunit, The Unburied poses a less arduous challenge to Palliser's chameleonic style-shifting than his previous work. After a memorable exploit in Dickensian guise (The Quincunx), the bleak alienation of The Sensationist, and the gleeful modern malice of Betrayals, the author's polyhedric talent manifests through the borrowed, decently curbed pen of a Victorian sensation-novelist to bring us a gaslit murder-mystery of the 1880s, spiced by incidental academic nose-poking into earlier crimes of the Restoration period, all perpetrated in the claustrophobic gloominess of an ancient cathedral close. Two narrators, the staid historian Edward Courtine and a troubled boy named Philip, become unwilling and unwitting participants in the disagreeably sordid events of Christmas 1882; between them, they hold the key to an enigma which the reader can fully unravel only under the light shed by Philip's commentary, 37 years after the facts, on a sealed memoir left behind by the shaken Courtine.
Describing the story in any detail would spoil the book for readers and perhaps make reading it actually unnecessary, since here plot is undisputed king and interest is primarily sustained through getting to the bottom of it. Paradoxically, the bizarre murders committed during the Restoration prove more suspenseful than the one that takes place under the reader's nose, which Courtine, not at all an obtuse observer, nevertheless fails to plumb; his skewed theories are actually more intriguing than the humdrum truth.
Palliser's obvious model for The Unburied is the work of Wilkie Collins, whose style and plotting techniques are approximated. Those familiar with "real" Victorian fiction will judge Palliser's reprise of the period adequate but uncompelling, while those who have read, say, Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost will find his approach to the intellectual/historical thriller competent but unoriginal. These remarks should not be interpreted as damning with faint praise, however, but more as praising with faint damns; second-best from Palliser is not to be disdained. The mystery itself is constructed intricately enough to satisfy average detective-story conventions, although most readers will solve it at least in general outline well before Philip adds the finishing touches; all readers will be fascinated by Palliser's attentive characterization of the earnest Courtine, his insincerely-yours friend Austin Fickling, and the insidious librarian Robert Locard.
No one anxious to follow Palliser's development as a writer and appreciative of his formidable talent will want to skip this latest of his titles, but the excited expectations generated by The Quincunx and Betrayals are not satisfied in The Unburied, which will have to be catalogued as a minor stylistic exercise, not at all devoid of interest but without significant point--unless the author simply wanted to ascertain that he can masquerade as Collins too whenever he likes.
© Wordreign, November 2000
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