 His first novel, "The Meaning of Night", was published in 2006 and was shortlisted for the 2006 Costa first novel award.Inspired by authors such as Charles Dickens (a childhood favorite), Wilkie Collins, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, this thriller novel is set both in a dirty, corrupting 1850s London, and Evenwood, an idyllic country estate - both equally full of mysteries.It was followed by a sequel,"The Glass of Time" set twenty years later.