I've always been a great fan of graphic novels – I was a reader of superhero comics as a kid, and have never lost my enjoyment of the form. I am very much aware that I am not the only adult to enjoy comics and graphic novels. And this is one that is most definitely aimed at adults.

Lucifer Box is Victorian England's greatest portrait artist – and that period's equivalent of James Bond. He is called in when a series of disappearances of Vulcanologists raises the suspicions of the authorities.

His investigation leads him to a private club in a club in Naples called The Vesuvius Club – but this is not the kind of genteel reserved gentlemen's club that anyone who has read or seen Sherlock Holmes would recognise. This is an upper-class brothel. And it's through an encounter at this club that Box begins to unravel the dastardly plot that involves the kidnapping of the scientists – and, as expected, threatens the entire world.

This is absorbing stuff, don't think of this as kid-stuff or a light bit of fluff. This is a serious tale for adults, and should be read by a wide audience, certainly wider than it's likely to get due to its graphical nature. But if people are considering trying this medium, but have been worried that they might read a lightweight tale, this may be the one to start with.

And for anyone who enjoys graphic novels as a form, this is likely be one you will enjoy. As mentioned there is adult content in these pages so if you are squeamish or prudish don't read it, but otherwise this gets a hearty recommendation from me.

Synopsis
When Lucifer Box Esq - dandy, rake, portraitist and His Majesty's Most Dashing Secret Agent - wrote the first volume of his adventures, The Vesuvius Club, he could never have imagined that one hundred and one years later he would end up as an artwork himself. But - like Dorian Grey before him - he has. Inspect Box at home in Number 9 Downing Street (but try to ignore the mess) and in the Turkish Baths. Witness his coach-chase though London, on the path of the murderer of Britain's most eminent scientific brains. Spy on the secrets he uncovers when that path leads him to Naples, including the biggest secret of all - the nefarious (but nice) Vesuvius Club. In reading Mark Gatiss's novel, Stephen Fry exclaimed 'More, I want more!' Well here it is. A book that might just match the wildest dreams of its hero, The Vesuvius Club: The Graphic Edition illustrates Lucifer Box deliciously sandwiched between Edwardian low life and high society.