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Infernal Devices is a dark and humorous account of events which almost destroyed the Earth. The story is then told by George Dower in retrospect, going back to the moment his faithful manservant Creff entered his room and told him he has a visitor, a "crazed - a murderous savage!".

Dower inherited a shop from his genius father and he is trying to get by repairing what he can. A surprise visit from that strange man marks the beginning of Dower's adventures. Next thing he knows there are burglars after the things he owns, murderers are after him, he receives a coin with an unknown saint on it, secret societies and very ugly and weird villagers are bent on killing him and that is not all.
Dower's unexpected curiosity leads him to a London district nobody wants to talk about only to get him in even more trouble. We are not spoon-fed information, you don't get everything explained all at once. Even when the characters retell the same events, those events somehow retain the novelty. There are stories within the stories which is wonderfully written.

This is a dark science fiction steampunk mystery with a lot of weird humour and a very unlikely hero. He doesn't get excited easily and most of things he does are somehow out of the character.

So why not higher rating? I started reading this book more than once. The beginning is really slow. I am glad I read it finally, but the beginning definitely doesn't show what kind of story is waiting past the visit of Brown Leather Man. I really liked this book, but then again I am sort of biased when it comes to steampunk, so take this with a grain of salt. Even now I am really not sure what I want to say about it except that I liked it. The other reason is I am not a big fan of "Little Did He Know" writing.