Think of England

Think of England (2015) KJ Charles

Set in England in 1904.

Comfort read. Which for me generally means murder. This story doesn’t start with murder, but there is death, and blackmail, and treason.

Archie Curtis lost friends, his career, and several of his fingers when a shipment of guns exploded upon use. When Archie learns it might have been sabotage instead of poor manufacturing, he decided to attend a house party to investigate.

Only someone else is already there, looking into another issues.

He was about Curtis’s age and just a few inches shorter, close to six foot, but with nothing of his own bulk. A slender, willowy sort, and very dark, with sleek and glossy black hair, brilliantined to within an inch of its life, and eyes of such a deep shade that it was nearly impossible to tell pupil from iris. His skin was olive-tinted against his white shirt. In fact, he was quite obviously some kind of foreigner.

A foreigner and a dandy, because while his shirt was impeccable and the tailcoat and tapering trousers cut to perfection, he was wearing a huge green glass ring and, Curtis saw with dawning horror, a bright green flower in his buttonhole.

I adore Da Silva.

He grabbed for the nearest serving dish and proffered it, in the hope of changing the subject. “Ham?”

“No, thank you.”

“It’s a jolly good one.”

Da Silva blinked, slowly, like a lizard. “I dare say, but I fear I haven’t converted since we last spoke.”

“Con— Oh. Oh, I beg your pardon. I quite forgot you were a Jew.”

“How refreshing. So few people do.”

What I like best about Archie is that he is so decent.

If Curtis wanted to see bullying, he’d go back to school.

Curtis had heard this kind of talk a few times, and never from men who had actually put on a uniform. Normally a patient man, he had found armchair warriors almost intolerable since Jacobsdal, and there was a snap in his voice as he replied, “Yes, jolly good. So, when that conflict comes, will you be joining the army? Or, why not now, if you’re so keen?”

Now I have to finish this, or I’ll end up re-reading the entire thing.

Publisher: KJC Books
Rating: 8.5/10

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