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The Lawrence Browne Affair

Friday, June 19, 2020

The Lawrence Browne Affair (2017) Cat Sebastian (The Turner Series)

The Lawrence Browne AffairSet in England in 1816

Georgie Turner needs to leave London ASAP. He has run afoul of the crime lord with whom he had worked for several years, because he couldn’t go through with a confidence game. So his brother sends him out to Cornwall to see if the Mad Earl Radnor is, in fact, mad.

“Five servants quit,” Halliday said, tapping Lawrence’s desk in emphasis. Dust puffed up in tiny clouds around the vicar’s fingertips. “Five. And you were woefully understaffed even before then.”

Five fewer servants? So that was why the house had been so pleasantly quiet, why his work had been so blissfully undisturbed.

Lawrence Browne is delighted to be left alone with his studies and inventions. Since he is sure he will go mad like his father and his brother, the fewer people he has around him, the less likely it is for someone to get hurt when he goes mad.

he was operating on the vague sense that when in doubt about the correct course of action, he ought to consult his desires and behave contrary to them.

Georgie is surprised to discover he is not only good as being a secretary, but he enjoys it–although being a secretary for Radnor is slightly unusual.

It was satisfying, too, to create order out of utter chaos. It was like untangling a thread or picking a lock.

And wasn’t that just the worst of it, how the man had made himself indispensable. Turner really was a very good secretary, even though Lawrence was doubtless unpleasant to work for. All his fussing and interference resulted in Lawrence being less frustrated. Calmer, even. Certainly more productive. Which was somehow even worse than if Turner were simply a shiftless nuisance.

There is also a child, who is sent to Radnor even though Radnor doesn’t want him around.

Simon regarded him, his nose red with cold. “Uncle Kemble says Lord Radnor isn’t my real father anyway. So it’s only natural that he can’t be bothered.”

“Uncle Kemble can sod right off, then,” Georgie said promptly, before recalling that this language was not suitable for an eight-year-old’s ears. “Damn!” No, that was no improvement.

Lawrence sees himself as broken, which is of course why I like him so well. Georgie is a bit of a trickster–except that he is immediately protective of a child he hasn’t met, so you know he’s not that much of a trickster.

Publisher: Avon Impulse
Rating: 8/10

 

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