I have read a book! Yeah! The book in question was The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss (now also a famous writer for the Dr Who TV series.) The book followed the investigations by Lucifer Box, both a painter but also a spy and killer. A man of loose morals. I am having a lazy day today, so I wanted something fun to read. This looks like the first book of a trilogy of books. I first learned about Lucifer Box from radio adaptations of the two other novels.