Turnbull House by Jess Faraday is a true masterpiece. From the first page I was immersed in the story and filled with wonder and delight as I travelled the streets of Victorian London alongside Ira.

Ira Adler ply's his trade as a private secretary. Currently between jobs and owed wages Ira is living in squalid rooms with barely enough to sustain himself. Life doesn't seem like it can get much more difficult but the arrival of ex-felon Marcus, newly released from prison, and a financial crisis affecting the shelter he runs with old friend Tim Lazarus sends his life into a tailspin from which he will be lucky to escape with his life and liberty intact.

Turbull House, the youth shelter started by Ira and Tim, is almost insolvent. It's suffering from a lack of donations, so in an effort to stop its inhabitants being turned out onto the streets Ira turns to ex-lover Cain Goddard, the infamous Duke of Dorset, for help. Goddard offers Turnbull House a loan, but he also wants Ira's help on the side as an occasional deliverer of messages. As the children of Turnbull House, led by irrepressible new arrival Jack Flip, work out how generate the income required to fulfil the loan repayments Marcus proves unexpectedly useful in deciphering the meaning of Ira's strange deliveries for Goddard.

As Ira gets dragged more into Goddard’s web he turns to the man's bitter enemy Andrew St. Andrews for help. Can Ira, along with St. Andrews work out what's going on? And is Ira in danger of getting in too deep to extract himself?

Ira is a well-developed character; he's proud, independent and determined to do the right thing. The story is told from his POV, and this is a plot based story, it isn't MM romance by any means; it's a gritty dark mystery. Ira has a love hate relationship with Cain, he hates what he is, what he represents, but is drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He still has feelings for the man, and as much as he hates to admit it he's attracted to the danger the man represents

The secondary characters are as well developed as Ira, particularly Tim Lazarus, Marcus and the mysterious Jack Flip. The historical setting is realistic and accurate, the author's research showing itself here, and I loved the sprinkling of real people we get thought out the book, people such as Oscar Wilde, Bram Stocker and Arthur Conan Doyle, it made the story so much more dynamic and vivid. I savored every page.

Jess Faraday's writing style is rich and eloquent, distinctive and dramatic. It draws you in, making you feel a part of the story. Turnbull House is the sequel to The Affair of the Porcelain Dog. I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading that book but I didn't feel its loss as the author provides enough backstory to enable Turnbull House to be read as a standalone.

For lovers of plot based dramatic historical fiction Turnbull House cannot be bettered and Jess Faraday is certainly an author I will be following closely in the future. Highly Recommended.