Book: A Pretender's Murder by Christopher Huang
Reviewed by Midnight Library Mouse
Rating: 4/5
Me, while reading this: This guy has four dead sons? That's suspicious, I wonder why they all died...
Also me: remembers this book is set 7 years after The Great War
I had such a fun time reading this book. I felt like an Agatha Christie era detective right alongside Eric Peterkin, a man reluctant to get involved in his second murder mystery in as many years.
I loved being able to make notes, deductions, and sometimes even flat out accusations (that weren't always right, whoops).
This was my first Christopher Huang book, despite this being the second book in the series. There were references to the first book (and the first mystery), but it didn't feel like I was getting in the middle of a story I had no business being in the middle of. Would I have known a bit more about the history of the Britannia, Eric Peterkin, and the atmosphere of 1920s London had I read the first book? Probably. But it also didn't ruin my reading experience of A Pretender's Murder.
Eric Peterkin is a mixed race character, and I loved the way it was incorporated into the story. It wasn't just a throw-away fact about the character that didn't impact the story at all, it impacted the way he was reacted to by different people, he was sometimes stereotyped within the story, without being a stereotype himself. In fact, all the characters were fully fleshed out, whole individuals, despite being described as fitting into some archetypes of the era (i.e. the girlish ingenue, the chic ahead-of-her-time woman wearing pants, etc.). I also really appreciated having a list of the prominent characters involved at the beginning of the book, it's super useful to refer back to, even though the characters are represented in a way that isn't overly complicated.
If you love classic murder mysteries, historical settings, and characters you can't help but root for, you will love this book by Christopher Huang. Time for me to go and read the first Eric Peterkin book now...
Disclaimer: Thank you to Netgalley, Inkshares, and Christopher Huang for this e-ARC. I was provided this ARC for review only, I was not paid for this review. All opinions are my own.