A Gentleman's Murder (Eric Peterkin #1)

A Gentleman's Murder (Eric Peterkin #1)

Christopher Huang

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

The year is 1924. The cobblestoned streets of St. James ring with jazz as Britain races forward into an age of peace and prosperity. London's back alleys, however, are filled with broken soldiers and still enshadowed by the lingering horrors of the Great War. Only a few years removed from the trenches of Flanders himself, Lieutenant Eric Peterkin has just been granted membership in the most prestigious soldiers-only club in London: The Britannia. But when a gentleman's wager ends with a member stabbed to death, the victim's last words echo in the Lieutenant’s head: that he would "soon right a great wrong from the past." Eric is certain that one of his fellow members is the murderer: but who? Captain Mortimer Wolfe, the soldier’s soldier thrice escaped from German custody? Second Lieutenant Oliver Saxon, the brilliant codebreaker? Or Captain Edward Aldershott, the steely club president whose Savile Row suits hide a frightening collision of mustard gas scars? Eric's investigation will draw him far from the marbled halls of the Britannia, to the shadowy remains of a dilapidated war hospital and the heroin dens of Limehouse. And as the facade of gentlemenhood cracks, Eric faces a Matryoshka doll of murder, vice, and secrets pointing not only to the officers of his own club but the very investigator assigned by Scotland Yard.


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    I’m wavering on what rating to put on this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed; call it a high three stars, and I hope I can give future titles in the series four stars...maybe if they feature more and slightly better written female characters. EDIT: I came back and made it 4. I enjoyed this book too much to let it wallow at 3.

    That being said- a fun, fairly well plotted, engaging riff on the Golden Age detective story, thoughtfully and conscientiously addressing some of the problems of the genre to which it pays loving tribute - that is, the Fu Manchu style villain, the frank and overt racism in many of even the best novels of the canon, and the question of Empire and Englishness.

    For a first foray into the genre, it’s certainly impressive, and I look forward to reading more of Eric Peterkin’s adventures.

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