A Gentleman's Murder

A Gentleman’s Murder is about how Eric Peterkin, a lieutenant that served in World War I, who now reviews manuscripts for publication, turns detective. He’s a member of a gentleman’s club where he agrees to referee a bet between two other members. One of those men turns up murdered the next day inside the locked vault in the club. This club, The Britannia Club, is for those gentlemen that served their country in war, and one of Eric’s ancestors helped found it. Since “there had always been Peterkins at the Britannia,” Eric feels a sort of ownership of the club, and thus a responsibility to get justice for the victim. What follows is a thoroughly enjoyable journey of discovery through London’s dusty libraries and opium dens.
This book is a callback to the height of the detective novel. Eric is an interesting, well developed, three dimensional character, and he’s fun to follow. His father was British, while his mother was Chinese, and this leads to obstacles for Eric in post World War I London. This diversion from your typical white guy main character makes this book stand out from other detective novels. The book does a good job of making these men, who served in a most terrible war, feel real. They have traumas that they can’t talk about, and they hate fireworks and loud noises. I think it’s a great choice to show that these men were affected by what they experienced in battle, rather than just having them with a typical British stiff upper lip.
This was an excellent book, and I highly recommend it! I hope we get to see more of Eric Peterkin in the future!!

The novel takes place in England in 1924, and is told from the perspective of Eric Peterkin. He's part of the Britannia Club, whose membership is only extended to soldiers. A harmless bet is wagered between two men in the club, Wolfe and Benson, and by the end of the night, one of them is dead. The story unravels as Eric attempts to discover the murderer and motive - and discovers a more complex story than he expected.

I LOVED this book. I'm a huge history nerd, particularly for things pertaining to Britain and World War I. I haven't encountered many novels about the aftermath of WW1, and how survivors dealt with it. This novel shows the effects of mustard gas on survivors, shellshock and morphine addiction, and even the panic of men when they would hear loud noises. And it's from the perspective of both soldiers and women who worked as nurses. The latter perspective is often forgotten, so I really appreciated that inclusion. War here isn't romanticized. Almost every character is haunted by their experiences, and it was so incredibly realistic and well-done.

Also, I loved Eric and Avery. Their friendship was amazing. Avery doesn't have a huge character arc or purpose to the overall plot, but he's Eric's research buddy and serves as a point of humour and light-heartedness when the story is focused on murder and death. I adored him.

Eric himself was awesome. He's half-British, half-Chinese, and constantly has to suffer comments for being "half-caste" and inferior to fully British people. It's really disgusting, but an unfortunate reality many Asian people had to experience for being other and "exotic". Eric continues to prove that being half-Chinese has no bearing on his character and ability. I think the making of Eric as half-Chinese gave something unique to the story (as opposed to having a fully British protagonist as one would usually expect for a novel set in Britain at this time) while also giving social commentary about the general myth of "sinister" Chinese associated with opium dens.

All the characters were pretty awesome and I loved following Eric through the mystery. Definitely appreciated his sleuthing skills, which felt almost Holmesian sometimes.

I highly recommend this historical murder mystery!

I received an ARC of A Gentleman's Murder from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. This book had me from page one. I knew immediately that I was going to love it because the author's writing was so good. It was a joy to read. The story takes place in London in 1924. The main character is former army lieutenant Eric Peterkin. He is member of an exclusive gentlemen's club for former military men. There have always been Peterkn's in the Britannia Club, but because his mother was Chinese he finds himself somewhat of an outcast. He works for a publishing company as an editor of mostly mystery novels and fancies himself a bit of an amateur detective. A member of the Britannia Club is murdered and when Eric notices the lead Scotland Yard detective taking and concealing a piece of evidence he immediately doubts that the victim will receive his due justice and takes it on himself to investigate. His main suspects are a small group of the club members, but his investigation soon leads back to the disappearance of a nurse from an army hospital in England during World War I. This leads him from the Britannia Club to Sotheby Manor, site of the former hospital and even to the opium dens of Limehouse. This is a classic tale from the golden age of mysteries, and even though all the clues were there it had me guessing until the very end. The character development was very good and the 1920s was a fascinating period of technical advancement and great social upheaval. it also provided an up-close look at those men and women who had served during World War I and the then little know curse of PTSD, or as it was known then, shellshock. This book receives my highest recommendation and I hope to see more books from Christopher Huang.