Unfit to Print

Unfit to Print (2018) K.J. Charles

Gil is the son of a wealthy man and that man’s housemaid, but unlike many, Mr Lawes claimed his son.

Gil had spent his childhood here under his father’s carelessly affectionate eye. The old man might have played the fool, or the knave, with his housemaid, but he had never failed in his financial obligations to their son, and had formally acknowledged Gil his own when she’d died. That was more than many would have done. Gil had been christened with his mother’s surname and inherited her looks; Pa could well have avoided presenting the county with a brown-skinned proof of his misbehaviour.

Unfortunately, when his father did, Gil’s brother refused to honor their father’s wishes.

Then his father had died, and Matthew had inherited, and Gil had never seen the place since.

There are standing orders to the servants, Matthew’s man of business had said. If you set foot on the property you are to be whipped.

Vikram has been a lawyer for years, fighting (often for free) for the poor and dispossessed–much to the chagrin of his parents, who wanted him to represent his people, perhaps in the house of Commons.

But as much as he isn’t made to feel at him in England, he isn’t sure India would be better.

I count myself an Indian, not an Englishman.”

“So?”

“So what if I went home and didn’t feel as though I belonged?” Vikram blurted the words. “If ‘home’ wasn’t home at all, what— who— would I be then? What if I was an Englishman there?”

(I really like that passage.)

Instead, he ends up searching for a missing teen, whose parents are desperate to find him, and turning a blind eye to how he brings in money and helps the family.

When Vikram’s search leads him to Hollywell Street, he doesn’t expect to find his long-lost school friend.

I really really really like KJ Charles’ stories. They always have a varied cast of characters, and although they are full of boinking, I’m okay with that for the characters and the stories.

I also like how the men talk around feelings that men of that time weren’t particularly allowed to express–especially feelings that were illegal.

“Even your ghastly cat.” “

He’s not my cat.”

“No, of course not. He just lives here. How long has he ‘just lived here’?”

“Since I moved in,” Gil admitted. “He turned up and wouldn’t go.”

“You named him, correct? You feed him. This is his sole or primary residence.”

“Don’t you lawyer at me.”

“Gil, this is your cat. You have a home, a business, and a cat. It’s more than I have achieved.”

“You can have the cat,” Gil said with feeling. “Take him.”

I did have a slight issue with the resolution of Gil’s work. I wasn’t sure it felt true–that Gil was ready to give up his anger and his burden so quickly and to turn from the way he’d supported himself. But I suppose that could have come from more internalizing than the story had time for.

As I said, these are boinking books, and not for everyone, but I really really like them.

Publisher: KJC Books
Rating: 8/10

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