The Mechanist, by Paul Gordon James

London, 1892. The age of reason is turning strange. Gaslight yields to electricity, science flirts with the supernatural, and in the fog-choked taverns of the East End, a masked performer known only as The Mechanist astounds audiences with feats that defy explanation.

When mathematician Paul White and his brilliant but secretive mentor, Professor Reginald Dixon, witness one of his unsettling displays—a talking head, a hypnotised crowd, a spectator set ablaze by invisible force—they are drawn into a labyrinth of illusion, espionage, and murder. The discovery of a severed head in Dixon’s rooms soon brands them as suspects, forcing White to uncover the link between The Mechanist, Ada Lovelace’s lost diary, and a missing physicist erased from history.

From the gaslit alleys of Stepney to the echoing halls of the Royal College of Science and the haunted silence of Faraday’s abandoned lighthouse, The Mechanist fuses Victorian noir, cutting-edge science fiction, and geopolitical intrigue—a darkly visionary tale of obsession, conscience, and the perilous dream of creating a thinking machine.

As empires vie for mastery of the human mind, Paul White must decide: is knowledge salvation—or damnation?

For readers of The Prestige, The Difference Engine, and The Essex Serpent, this haunting sequel to The Night’s Cipher offers an intoxicating blend of historical mystery, philosophical suspense, and gothic romance.