The Meaning of Night

Just read and greatly enjoyed this book. For those who don't know, it's basically a kind of pastiche of a Wilkie Collins type thriller. It begins with the narrator killing a man chosen at random from the streets of London and then goes back to his childhood to explain the necessity (as he perceives it) of his action. At first it seems tongue in cheek due to the heavy "Collinsesque" style it's written in but he plays it remarkably straight and without irony throughout, this feel helped by the copious historical footnotes. This isn't normally the kind of book that I read but I was completely sucked in to the (slightly ridiculous) story and found myself rooting for the protagonist by the end. I just thought that it completely succeeded in what it was trying to do in updating the classic formula of lost birthright, faithless lovers, footpads, fallen women and opium.
I guess it's not really a dissensus book but anyone here read it, got any opinions etc?

It's by someone called Michael Cox. You should have no trouble at all picking it up, as I understand it he was signed with a fair bit of hype and a major advance but no-one has been buying it so they're already discounting it in the big book stores.

I can very easily imagine you hating it (going by what I can gather from your taste from previous comments) but I'd certainly value your opinion. It only took me a couple of days to read so it won't be a major sacrifice.