What can one really say about Nicholas Hawksmoor or Nicholas Dyer other than their lives are separated by 250 years and yet in the events described by the author their lives aren't really that separated at all, neither by time nor space as it turns out. Ackroyd's novel is not a simple read that flows along a nice straight linear plot-line. Oh no. Hawskmoor quite creatively mixes the very different worlds our main characters inhabit, with many nice stylistic touches that lend a unique authenticity to the worlds the writer is describing, and brings the little creative enterprise to a rather satisfying close. Don't misunderstand, Ackroyd's prose is challenging, especially to those not familiar with alternate spellings found in now very old English works of literature. And yet without them I don't believe the novel would be as compelling. Hawksmoor is definitely a novel that English lit geeks will dig.

How to describe the plot? Devil-worshipping architect Nicholas Dyer builds several churches around London that require, to his questionable mind anyway, blood sacrifices, which he obliges with murder most foul! Fast forward a quarter of a Millenia and detective Nicholas Hawskmoor is investigating several grisly murders that ultimately connects him to his namesake Dyer in the past. I won't say how it all wraps up but merely encourage the reading of Hawksmoor. It's a novel that should be better known.