Subtle Blood

Subtle Blood (2021) KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures #3)

Set in England in 1924

“I might have to buy one, actually, it was such fun. Shall we, Maisie? We can call her Suzy.”

“Su— A Hispano-Suiza?” Kim demanded. “Do you know how fast those beasts go?”

“We do now,” Maisie said. “I’d like a drink, please.”

A brief internet search gives me ~105-110 MPH as it’s probable top speed.

“Your family all seem to think your brother had to join up because you didn’t. But the Military Service Act had been around for a year or more. Everyone aged eighteen was meant to go. So how is it your fault?”

“Because ‘meant to’ is a flexible concept to people like my father.”

“Maybe I needed the things they trained out of me.” His shoulders felt solid with tension. “Maybe they couldn’t have trained them out of other people. I know they couldn’t. There were men who never fired their guns, plenty of them. They’d go over the top but they couldn’t make themselves kill, not even from a distance. The Army picked out the ones like me for a reason.”

“Any light on the horizon?”

“Only that cast by everything on fire.”

Characters: William Darling, Arthur Aloysius Kimberley de Brabazon Secretan, Maisie Jones, Phoebe Stephens-Prince, Mr. Deansbrook, Peacock, Teddy Molyneux, Harry, Palgrave, Paul Fairfax, Detective Inspector Rennick, Eric Knowle, George Yoxall, Captain James Yoxall Lord Witton, Quiller, Lord Flitby, Sir Alan Cheveley, Hugo Lavery Lord Aveston, Sergeant Hawes, Terence Welwyn, Bill Merton, DS, Mr. Alderney, Florrie Jacobs, Hastings, Freddie Secretan Lord Chingford

Cover by Tiferet Design

Rating: 8.5/10

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