Alison Goodman
Books: Mystery | Queer
The Ill-Mannered Ladies: The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (2023), The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin (2025)
The Ill-Mannered Ladies
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (2023)
Set in England in 1812
Content warnings: spousal abuse, homophobia, cancer, rape (off-page), child abuse & sexual assault (off-page), detailed description of medical procedure without anesthesia.
Gus and Julia, middle-aged twins who have never married, become involved in nefarious activities by accident, in seeking to help a friend who stood by them after their father’s ignoble death.
When we were children I had once cried because we were not identical. Our father had taken me aside and told me that he found such duplications unsettling and he was well satisfied with his two mismatched girls. He had been a good father and a better man. Yet in the eyes of society, his sordid death atop a rookery whore five years ago had become the sum of him.
This book sees the sisters involved in several mysteries: retrieving letters for a friend, helping an abused woman escape from her husband, helping girls escape from kidnapping and prostitution, and helping a woman escape from an asylum.
It was also true that after I learned about coverture from my reading, I became less and less inclined to hand over my half of our inherited fortune and all my legal and property rights—including the rights of my own body—to a husband. It would have to be a grand love, indeed, for me to willingly merge so completely with a man that I was all but legally obliterated. Most women did not have the choice to say no, but I did.
Additionally, Julia has what we would now name familial breast cancer, both are poorly treated by their brother (the head of their family), and Gus is struggling with a lack of faith.
What kind of god allowed such suffering—the untimely demise of a beloved betrothed and father and now a breast canker—to fall upon one of his most devoted worshippers? Certainly not one that I wished to exalt.
Despite those very heavy topics, it is not a depressing book, instead focusing on the positive things Gus does to help others, and her developing feelings for Lord Evan. I very much enjoyed the book and hope there will be another.
Characters: Augusta Colebrook, Julia Colebrook, Charlotte Lady Davenport, Caroline Thorne, Lord Evan Belford / Jonathan Hargate, Tully, William Weatherly, Duffy Lord Duffield, Sir Henry Woolcroft, Miss Harriet Woolcroft, Reginald Thorne, Bryden, Bertie Helden Lord Cholton, Mrs. Millicent Defray, Madame Frances d’Arblay / Fanny Burney, Miss Finchley, George Brummell, Mrs. Ellis-Brant, Mrs. Cullers, Miss Elizabeth Grant, Lady Hester Belford
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
July 2024 | Rating: 8/10
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin (2025) #2
Set in England in 1812
This is set soon after the events of the previous book. Gus and Julia are hiding Lady Hester and Miss Ponsonby from Lord Deele while Gus tries to learn more about the death that led to his transportation and current fugitive status.
And their brother is still awful.
“Do not be ridiculous, Augusta,” Duffy said. “Whitmore is an Oxford man and a trusted member of Liverpool’s government. You cannot fling around preposterous accusations about men of good standing.”
Although like the first book, there story goes to dark places, it is not without humor.
“I am not leaving,” I protested.
“Nor am I,” Julia said.
“I would like to leave,” Miss Grant said. “Please, let me leave.”
Apparently, it was important to have symmetrical hair when one was confronting a furious adversary.
I also appreciated that despite being in her 40s and curious, there were things Gus didn’t quite know.
My friend Charlotte, Countess Davenport, had on my request described the mechanics of it, but I had never thought it to be so naked, so vigorous, so… loud.
I don’t think you can read this book without having read the first book, but as ebooks have made it easy to collect all the books in a series (instead of prowling the shelves of bookstores for that missing book in the collection) that shouldn’t be a burden.
Characters: Augusta Colebrook, Julia Colebrook, Weatherly, Lord Evan Belford, Mr. Kent, John Driver, Lord Duffield, Lord Thomas Milroy, Lady Eleanor, George Brummell, Lord Alvanley, Mary Berry, Agnes Berry, Mrs. Anne Damer, Charlotte Lady Davenport, Porty Lord Davenport, Edward Harley, Mrs. Ellis-Brant, Mr. Charles Rampling, Miss Ponsonby, Lady Hester Belford, Lord Deele, Mr. Charles Rampling, Colonel Drysan, Captain William Morland, Lieutenant Henry Powers, Hanford, George Whitmore, Charles Whitmore, Reed, Gibbon, Thomas Hatchard, Samuel, Lord Cholton, James Mulholland, Reginald Drake, Dorothy Martindale
Cover illustration by Sveta Dorosheva
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
June 2025 | Rating: 8/10