George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan is, like the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, not a brilliant piece of work, but it's so enthusiastically done, I couldn't helped by be charmed and entertained by it.
Ghosts of Manhattan is set in an alternate 1920s where the U.S. is engaged in a cold war with Great Britain, people drive steam-powered cars, and holographic telephones are commonplace. In a New York City plagued by a mysterious crime lord known as "the Roman,"a group of characters come into contact and conflict: wealthy dandy Gabriel Cross; Felix Donovan, tough-as-nails police detective; Celeste, a jaded jazz singer; sinister criminal Gideon Reece; and a driven, masked vigilante called the Ghost.
The book jacket describes the Ghost as "the World's First Steampunk Superhero." I'm not sure how accurate that is: there may be a steampunk superhero that predates the Ghost, and despite the steam-driven cars, the technology in Ghosts of Manhattan isn't strictly "steampunk." In fact, the technology and alternate history don't really add anything to the story. Mann could have written this as a straight pseudo-historical adventure and it would have worked the same.
And it does work. Mann pours on the purple prose and embraces loads of superhero and adventure clichés, but uses it in an exciting, fast-paced adventure story written with an obvious love for the hero pulps (like the Shadow, the Spider, Doc Savage and more). Mann has a way of making his purple prose and clichés seem...well, not fresh, but full of energy and fun. It helps that Mann's characters are all engaging (even the minor characters), with charming personalities and wounded hearts. The sex and violence is a bit more graphic than in the original hero pulp storie, which threw me a bit at first, but I quickly got used to it.
Ghosts of Manhattan is a terrific take on pulp stories of masked crimefighters. I hope Mann writes more Ghost adventures.