The House on Half Moon Street
by Alex Reeve
Raven Books
In 1880, Victorian London was full of desperate characters that profited from other people’s weaknesses. It was a terrible time for most women and there is no way to romanticize the exploitation and the conditions in which the majority of the population struggled to survive. Alex Reeve takes his readers into the chaos and desperation of the city where the Thames River was the sewer of the city and a dumping ground for murdered bodies.
Leo Stanhope emerges as the hero of the dark tale. He works in the Westminster Hospital morgue as assistant to the coroner. He lives in a small room in Soho and has a simple life. Going to a club to play chess and visiting Elizabeth Brafton’s brothel on Half Moon Street once a week to see Maria with whom he is enamoured are his only outings. He would go to the brothel, which is between the affluence of Mayfair and the bustle of Piccadilly, more often but his finances won’t allow it.
Leo is hiding a secret because he was actually born Charlotte. Leaving home at the age of 15, he has learned to pass as a man over the last ten years. Although there were drawbacks to leading a double life, there were many benefits to living as a man during these times. Binding his chest and wearing a roll of cloth sewn into the crotch of his trousers, Leo feels a sense of what he should have been, of what he has always known himself to be.
Dreaming that he would one day run off and live with Maria as ‘normal people’, Leo was shocked when he hears of her violent murder, and even more shocked that he is suspected of killing her. Leo is forced to become an amateur detective to hunt down the real killer so that he won’t lose everything he has worked for, and maybe even his life is at stake.
Leo soon finds out that he is not the only person with a secret as he traverses the town and finds himself in perilous situations. This exciting who-done-it is the start of an enticing new historical series of Gothic thrillers set in Victorian London and featuring transgender character Leo Stanhope. It is an excellent read.
Lezly Herbert
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