Even at his most fantastical, Carey is a surprisingly disciplined writer. His calm, formal prose abounds with marvellous images as well as his magpie fascination with things and ideas. Carey is still most widely celebrated for his 1988 Booker Prize-winning Oscar and Lucinda, recently reissued as a movie tie-in. His dark domestic drama The Tax Inspec- tor (1991) remains his best work. Jack Maggs takes a lively and imaginative jaunt into the Dickensian underworld of 19th-century London. So heavy is Dickens's influence, particularly the many echoes of Great Expectations, that readers may find themselves checking the title page. Magic, mystery, multiple coincidence, the required dank atmosphere of guilt and regret, plus a cast of eccentrics combine to confirm that Carey is utterly in control of his pastiche. In fact, the only false note is that of the characterisation of Maggs himself, who somehow never develops beyond the flattest of stage antiheroes.
