Anthony O'Neill Anthony O'Neill i(A12808 works by)
Born: Established: 1964 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

O'Neill is the son of an Irish policeman and an Australian stenographer. He has been living in Melbourne, Australia, and is a full-time writer.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Lamplighter Pymble : HarperCollins Australia , 2003 Z1004288 2003 single work novel fantasy horror detective

'Evelyn is a clever orphan at the Fountainbridge Institute for Destitute Girls. Enchanted by a cheerful lamplighter who fires the streetlamp outside her window each evening, she mesmerizes the other girls with flights of fancy. In a time before Freudian awareness of sexuality and the subconscious mind, such tales are forbidden by the institute's governor, who warns Evelyn to cease her nocturnal storytelling.

'Evelyn defies him - and is cast out of the orphanage and sacrificed to a shadowy figure claiming to be her long-lost father. Who is this man, and why does he lock Evelyn away in a hunting lodge?

'Years later, the mutilated body of a professor of ecclesiastical law turns up on one of Edinburgh's finest streets; the grave of a famous colonel is ravaged; a shady entrepreneur is slaughtered while dashing for a train; and a retired lighthouse keeper is ripped to shreds while walking his dog -- all this after Evelyn, now a young woman, has reappeared in the city.

'What connects the victims? And what of Evelyn, anguished and appealing, who repeatedly claims to have dreamed the murders in great detail - each time blaming a mysterious "lamplighter"?

'Leading the official investigation is Carus Groves, a conceited yet effective police inspector desperate to cap his unremarkable career with a sensational case. Heading up the unofficial investigation is a disillusioned professor of logic and metaphysics, Thomas McKnight, and his assistant, Joseph Canavan, a strapping young gravedigger. Using reason, intuition, philosophy, and luck, these men race to solve the murders and unveil the source of Evelyn's torment, and in so doing penetrate the very gates of Hell.'

Book Jacket. Scribner, 2003. (Libraries Australia record).

2003 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Horror Division Novel
2003 honourable mention Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Fantasy Division Novel
Last amended 18 Oct 2006 23:02:51
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