In this enthralling re-imagination, 'The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein' unveils a friendship between Victor Frankenstein, a fervent researcher, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet, leading to a perilous obsession with reanimating the dead. Leaning on logic rather than faith, Victor's experiments escalate from using supplied corpses to seeking out perfect specimens, ultimately bringing to life a creature of infamy, underlining the story with the period's notable literary figures such as Shelley, Godwin, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley. As the narrative unfolds, Ackroyd enchants us with period-authentic voice and gothic ambiance, crafting a tale that ties history with the eternal questions of life, creation, and the soul.