Review - 'A Gentleman's Murder' by Christopher Huang

The first book in a historical murder mystery series, A Gentleman's Murder has a lot of potential, but not all of it is fully realized.

Let's start with what I enjoyed. The mystery itself was an interesting one, done in the style of the Golden Age that I'm a huge fan of. Because the murder takes place in a location with limited access, we immediately have a finite list of suspects and the feel of a locked room mystery. As the investigation proceeds, there are clues and red herrings aplenty, and it was fun to see it all unfold.

Eric Peterkin, our main character and residential amateur sleuth, is a sympathetic and likable lead. He is half-Chinese at a time and place where diversity is not an asset, and the exploration of the difficulties and bigotry that he faces is done with complexity and deftness. He is also a war veteran and suffers from PTSD, which is very much a focal point of this story.

Here, though, is where I think my personal preferences kept me from enjoying the story more. I don't tend to gravitate towards war historical fiction, and this is very much that. Even though we are post The Great War, Eric and every major player in this mystery is a war veteran, and their trauma shapes the bulk of the narrative.

I also found the first half to be quite slow in pace and rather grueling to get through. We are introduced to all the characters in one go, and they all blended into each other in my mind. I had a hard time keeping them apart, which became especially problematic since they are the main suspects in our murder.

The other thing that made it feel slow is that what starts out as a murder in the present quickly becomes an investigation into another murder in the past. And so now, not only am I having trouble keeping straight who is who in the present, but also how they all related to each other in the past.

Fortunately, somewhere around the halfway point, I found myself settling into the story and starting to enjoy it more. What began as an introduction to all the characters and their backgrounds had coalesced into a more plot-driven mystery, and I was finally able to what I do best in a story like this—and that's to don my detective cap and armchair detect away to my satisfaction.

To be fair, I think my lukewarm experience here isn't that uncommon when it comes to first books of murder mystery series, even among ones that eventually go on to become my favorites. There's something about needing to establish setting and atmosphere and the main characters that just drags it down a bit. And more often than not, it's the author's debut or their first attempt at the murder mystery, and so there's some growing pains to work through as well.

All in all, now that I've gotten acquainted with Eric Peterkin and his sister Penny, I wouldn't be opposed to reading a second book. I'd be curious to see where this series goes.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars