Copper Script by KJ Charles: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Copper Script by KJ Charles

Copper Script is a stand-alone historical queer romance with a dab of mystery. It takes place in 1920s London and features Aaron Fowler, a detective sergeant in the Metropolitan Police, and Joel Wildsmith, a self-taught graphologist with an uncanny skill at understanding a person’s character through their handwriting. Both men are in their late twenties and veterans of the Great War, where Joel has lost his left, dominant, hand. Both are also gay at a time when that could land them in prison.

The two come in touch when Aaron’s cousin asks him to check Joel for fraud, having lost his fiancé because of Joel’s character assessment of him. Under a false name, armed with three letters, Aaron asks Joel to give assessments of each person. The results stun him, not least because one of the letters was written by him. Unable to leave be, he devices a blind test for Joel about an ongoing case. Not only does Joel call the perp, he tells that one of the writers is a very bad person. Unfortunately for Aaron, that letter was one of the control letters and belongs to a person he knows.

Joel is a graphologist because that’s the only way he’s able to support himself and work towards buying a better prosthetic hand than the government is willing to give him. He doesn’t trust the police—or Aaron—ecause a cop had tricked him into a sexual act, which had landed him in prison for two months. But when he reads Aaron’s letter, he’s instantly interested in the man, and aroused by him too. He knows he should push the other man away, but can’t help doing the opposite.

The mystery isn’t a typical whodunnit, and it doesn’t dominate the story. Aaron knows who; he doesn’t know the crime. He has a hunch though, as he tries to solve a death of a private investigator. The more he investigates, the greater the pressure on him to leave be becomes. But when the pressure lands on Joel too in the form of the biggest crime organisation in London, he knows he must do something. Problem is how to do it without ruining their reputations, landing them in prison—or losing their lives.

This was an excellent novella. It’s not long; sixteen chapters and a little over 200 pages on my e-reader. But it tells a complete, satisfying story of love that needs to be kept hidden, but which is so strong it’s worth the risks. Aaron and Joel were wonderful characters, with Aaron having a more complex backstory. Joel was more at ease with being gay, even though he had lost a lot because of it. He’s more emotional of the two, but with equally strong character as Aaron; a survivor willing to keep surviving. Aaron has had it easier in life to an extent, but he has maybe more to lose if they’re discovered.

Like always in KJ Charles’ books, the historical setting is well-researched and comes alive in small details. The solution to the men’s problems was maybe easily achieved, and mostly done behind the scenes, but it was satisfying. The ending isn’t necessarily a happily ever after, but it is a chance for the men to achieve it. All in all, a great small read.

Death in the Spires by K. J. Charles: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles

Death in the Spires is excellent historical fiction and an enjoyable murder mystery. It takes place in the early 1890s Oxford and London in 1905, and follows Jeremy Kite, a government clerk who loses his job when an anonymous letter accuses him of a murder that took place in Oxford ten years earlier. Incensed, he decides to investigate once and for all.

Jem is a son of a factory worker, who with the help of a scholarship manages to get to Oxford to study mathematics, an achievement that was out of grasp of most working class people at the time. He’s short, clubfooted and doesn’t know the rules and manners of the place that is mostly populated by upper class white men who do not tolerate difference. He doesn’t have great expectations for his time there, but on his first day, he meets Toby Feynsham, a grandson of a marquis who takes him and other unusual people—for the era—under his wing, like a black man studying to become a doctor, two women (one of whom is Toby’s sister) and an (almost) openly gay man.

Against all odds, Jem has magical time in Oxford with his group of friends. He excels in his studies and even participates in activities like the rowing team. And then, three years later, right before the finals, Toby is murdered. It happens after a huge row between the group, and in a manner that the friends know that only one of them could’ve done it. But they keep their mouths shut and the murder goes unsolved. It breaks the group and they never meet again.

Jem’s life is destroyed by it. He has a breakdown and can’t graduate. He works for pittance at jobs he hates, and every now and then gets fired when rumours about the murder surface. So he starts to investigate, even though everyone he contacts tells him to leave be. To his surprise and sorrow, while the rest of the group seem successful, the murder has ruined their lives too, one way or another. And no one wants to talk.

Jem returns to Oxford, reluctantly, and connects with his old love, which somehow makes things worse, as Nick is among the suspects too. Little by little, he forms a picture of what took place. It turns out, Toby wasn’t the wonderful person he believed and may even have brought the death on himself, and all his friends had secrets that could’ve made them the killer. But no matter the reasons, Jem knows only truth will release their group from the limbo their lives have become. Not everyone agrees, and Jem’s life is suddenly in danger.

This was a wonderful, melancholy story of friendship, lost loves and missed chances. Like in Brideshead Revisited, the reader gets a vivid glimpse into a lost world of aristocratic academia, and the contrast with Jem’s dreary later life is great. Jem with his health issues is a lovely, dignified character who carries the story perfectly. His friends, flawed and all, are people who matter to him greatly. The reader doesn’t really want anyone to be the killer, to see them hang, and neither does Jem.

Luckily, this is a story where truth and justice aren’t the same thing. We get both. The ending is absolutely satisfying, and it leaves the reader with a hope that from now on, Jem’s life will improve and everyone will live happily ever after—whatever that may mean for them.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.