A very different murderer is on the loose in the third of Alex Reeve’s entertaining crime novels featuring Leo Stanhope, a transgender journalist in 1880s London...
Less involving than the previous two books in the series, Reeve’s latest novel nonetheless continues to hold the reader’s attention through the complexity of its narrator and central character — an individual determined, in several senses, to be his own man.
When coroner’s assistant turned journalist Stanhope is lured to a “penny gaff” in the East End by an anonymous letter claiming that a murder will take place, he witnesses a female wrestler beating all comers and a publicity stunt involving the fake hanging of Oswald Drake, the owner of the place. Two days later, however, Drake is killed for real. When Leo looks into it, he discovers that not only was the dead man an exploiter of children, but that the most likely suspect is leading an extraordinary double life. Intriguing and vivid, with an original and very likable protagonist, this is an excellent addition to a wonderful series.
