I found The House on Half Moon Street an intriguing Victorian crime mystery, with a quirky and lovable character, Leo Stanhope, taking on the lead role as a coroner's assistant. Leo was actually born a woman, but lives his life disguised as a man, as he believes he was born into the wrong gender.
When a local prostitute, Maria is found murdered, Leo becomes a suspect, as he was involved in a relationship with her. He sets out to prove his innocence and find the culprit, and soon finds himself in danger, on the streets of Victorian London.
I loved the London setting and the imaginative plot, with lots of twists and turns. However, i did think the pace slowed down in the middle of the books and became a little long winded. Leo is an endearing character and i would love to read his further adventures in a series.
I just reviewed The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve. #HouseOnHalfMoon #NetGalley
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This was so atmospheric and creepy and before I even realized it was already midnight and I was half finished, thinking what the hell am I reading. I've read a lot of crime fiction but this is something absolutely mind-blowingly different. Just when you think there isn't anything original - I guess some publishers still manage to find such a thing.

Alex Reeve is a fabulous writer to follow!

Thank you Bloomsbury Publishing and Raven Books for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.

I must admit that when I started reading this book I didn’t think it was going to be one I was going to enjoy, and I did initially struggle to get into the story. But I did find Alex Reeve’s writing to be wonderfully immersive and as I got to know the characters, especially our protagonist, Leo Stanhope more, I wanted to read on to find out what happened. You may feel the same as I did when I started reading, but please do stick with it as it does become very enjoyable.

Alex Reeve writes Victorian London really well. I could picture the expanding metropolis and the hive and buzz of the city clearly in my mind, and Alex brought his setting to life. Leo Stanhope is an intriguing character, Leo was originally born Charlotte, the daughter of a vicar, but has since decided to live the rest of her life as a man. In these times, this would have been an incredibly difficult thing to do, and if you were caught by the authorities, the penalties were severe. You can see that this is something that Alex has impeccably researched.

There is a very good mystery here as well, which kept me reading on. Leo works as a surgeon and performs autopsies on dead bodies. One morning he is greeted with a shock when the body he finds himself examining is that of his lover, Maria, and he knows she has been murdered, grief-stricken he sets out to try and find out who killed her, but soon he becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of the police.

The House on Half Moon Street is a brave debut that I’m sure will spark many different thoughts amongst readers. It would make a perfect book group read as it is quite different to what is out there in crime fiction at the moment. Once I got into the story, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was rooting for Leo to find out who killed Maria. I also found the plot unpredictable and I could never be sure how everything was going to unfold in the end. I will definitely be reading Alex’s next book.

This book took me a little time to get through as I found it started slow but it certainly got me hooked half way! The gritty descriptions of Victorian London are fantastic and I would recommend this book and can’t wait for the next in the series #HalfMoonStreet #NetGalley

Welcome to Victorian London. It’s a place we’re familiar with – the slums, poverty, prostitution, criminality, dirt and fog contrasting with the slightly richer folk. The new middle classes in their comfortable homes with their numerous children and overstuffed sitting rooms. Around it all a sense of double standards and a scant regard for human happiness. As a reader I’ve been here many times before with so many writers, but I never tire of it.

The House on half Moon Street opens in a hospital mortuary, where we are party to some early forensic science and are introduced to our hero, Mr Leo Stanhope. He’s an intelligent young man, conscientious in his work and, an impression I got from the first few pages, a person who lives with a high level of anxiety; there is a very good reason for this, Leo is trans gender. Born as Charlotte Pritchard, Leo lives his life (always has) in the wrong body. This is not the music hall cross dressing of Tipping the Velvet, Leo lives as a man constantly frustrated by his female body; breasts bound, bleeding monthly, always in fear of being found out.

A few do know Leo’s secret, among them his sister Jane, his friend and chess opponent Jacob, and Marie – the prostitute he falls in love with. :Leo lodges in a room above a run down pharmacy run by Alfie Smith (ex Army) and his precocious eleven year old daughter Constance. When we first meet Leo his life is on a fairly even keel.

However, things begin to go wrong very quickly, starting with the cadaver (Jack Flowers) we meet in the opening paragraphs and rippling out through the whole of Leo’s carefully constructed life – our hero falls into a detective story almost by accident.

When first Flowers and then Marie are killed, Leo is arrested as a suspect. Interviewed by Detective Sergeant Ripley he is unimpressed – the police have clearly not understood what’s happening – so once released (mysteriously) from a hideous night in the police cells Leo decides to investigate for himself.

I enjoyed this novel greatly – I didn’t really know what to expect, certainly not a detective – almost a private eye – story. There are some awful incidents (murder and rape among them) but these were disturbing times which, we know from history, little valued individual wellbeing, especially of the poor. This is not a po-faced social history though, and the story bowls along at quite a pace.

Leo is hugely engaging protagonist, intelligent and yet vulnerable, very brave even when the situation appears hopeless. He gathers a kind of ‘Scooby gang’ around him to help solve the crime – there are rooftop escapes, sinister stalkings through London fog, druggings and maimings and close shaves a plenty. Like all the best mystery stories the story twists and turns brilliantly, with all the pleasure of trying to puzzle it out. I thought I’d solved it twice (I hadn’t!). Brilliantly, for this reader at least, it has a proper resolution.

I understand this is the first in a series of Leo Stanhope books – his world is already real to me – I can imagine walking the streets, can feel the atmosphere. There so many characters who I wanted to meet again and get know a little better. Alex Reeve has built a marvellous Victorian world for Leo’s ‘family’ to inhabit and I’m looking forward to their further adventures very much indeed.

An enjoyable book but a little long winded in places.

You can feel sentiment for the characters and the story is a good one showing how challenging life and social acceptance was in history.

Very refreshing to read a crime story where the main twist of the story is that the main character is trans. The author has clearly done their research on transgender issues and feelings and this is turn makes the story more genuine. The crime story itself is thoroughly enjoyable particularly as it’s set in times gone by. Definitely recommend this book and I’m looking forward to more stories featuring Leo Stanhope.

I really enjoy historical fiction and this was a great one. Set in the 1880's with a great cast of characters. A proper whodunnit with lots of wonderful potential suspects. The writing is so atmospheric you can sense the dark, foggy, dreary Victorian days. It seemed well researched. A great ending. I hope there will be more coming with Leo Stanhope as the main character as would love to know what happens in his future ventures.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Raven Books for a review copy of The House on Half Moon Street, the first novel to feature Leo Stanhope, set in Victorian London.

Leo is happy, in love with Maria and working in the mortuary at Westminster Infirmary, but all is not as it seems because Leo has secrets. He was born Charlotte and is estranged from his family due to his lifestyle choices and Maria is a prostitute whom he pays. When Maria turns up dead in the mortuary Leo becomes obsessed with finding out who killed her.

I enjoyed The House on Half Moon Street which is a very assured debut with interesting period detail and some excellent twists in a well thought out plot. The novel is told from Leo’s point of view in the first person and it is a warts and all type of narrative, dealing not only with his investigation and emotions but with the physical difficulties of being a man in a woman’s body. I personally felt that this latter subject was belaboured in the early part of the novel at the expense of the investigation and it put me off a bit but I stuck with it and can see the relevance of it in light of later plot developments when the investigation and action heat up. Gender issues aside, the author paints a vivid picture of Victorian society and does not shy away from its harshness.

I like the plot which is absorbing as Leo struggles to understand what happened to Maria. The more he investigates the more puzzles he uncovers, not least Maria’s true nature, and the more suspects and motives. The resolution is ingenious and unexpected and seems to wholly suit the rest of the novel where nothing is as it seems.

The idea of making Leo transgender is audacious but probably not without historical precedent as it seems logical that some women would have at least disguised themselves as men to escape the confines of Victorian society and embark on a career. He is a well drawn character, fully convinced that he is a man in the wrong physical body, smart and resourceful but sometimes weighed down by his situation.

I’m glad I read the novel as it is so different but I’m not sure that I would read more if it was more of the same. I do not, however, have any hesitation in recommending The House on Half Moon Street as a good read.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing, Alex Reeve, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read The House on Half Moon Street, one of the most atmospheric novels I have read, and I'm very happy to place it in my top five reads for this year. Leo Stanhope is born a girl, Charlotte, but is increasingly convinced has been born in the wrong body so becomes transgender, living as a young male in the judgmental and grimy streets of Victorian London, policed by anyone who would turn you in to the authorities for sixpence.. Leo is incredibly brave to leave his past behind, as a woman wearing men's clothes and transitioning was illegal at that time. This is a subject that even today is not covered enough in literature. Diversity is key to understanding, not only the way others live, but in accepting that everyone of us is different. The subject shouldn't be seen as groundbreaking, but this is an amazing debut, utterly gripping and confidently presented. Historical fiction doesn't get better. I love anything edgy and really different and Alex Reeve has written a novel that enthralled me from the very beginning. I have read some fantastic writing this year, and THE HOUSE ON HALF MOON STREET certainly fits into this category. 5 stars.

“The truth is like clay: you mould it to what you want, and then it hardens.”

An easy blend of historical fiction and crime thriller, Alex Reeve has written an intriguing debut with a wonderful protagonist - Leo Stanhope. Leo, coroner’s assistant and man of good standing is hiding a secret that could have him put in prison so the stakes are high for him when he sets out to solve a murder and ensure justice is done.

The mystery itself here for me was more of a backdrop. The more interesting elements of the story related to how Leo got on in the seedy world Victorian England as a transgender man. Of course we’re following his thought process regarding the murder of Maria, a woman of the night he frequented who knew his secret, but it’s Leo’s thoughts we’re interested in rather than the whodunit. Perhaps that’s because I found Maria to be particularly unsympathetic and callously, I didn’t care who had murdered her or the equally unlikeable Jack Flowers!

Now that Leo has been strongly established as a character, I would certainly read more in this series and will be interested to see if we get more of the whodunit elements coming through. I will also be interested to see if Leo will be looking to recover his role as coroner’s assistant - presumably a particularly useful job to have in the solving of crimes!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing/ Raven Books and Alex Reeve for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The House on Half Moon Street is an extremely impressive debut, set in the 1800’s in London, our narrator is Leo Stanhope. Leo, having fallen in love with a prostitute must find her murderer whilst risking exposure of his biggest secret.
We know the secret early on and what’s lovely about this story is that London is described so well, it’s easy to imagine being there in that time. It’s also about acceptance and sacrifice and how much more difficult it was to be “different”, I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

A fascinating debut novel, based on an interesting premise. The main protagonist, Leo Stanhope, is a transgender mortuary assistant whose prostitute girlfriend shows up as a body on the mortuary slab. Stanhope makes it his mission to find out who killed her and why.

Absorbing rather than gripping, the book's strength is its evocative descriptions of the seedier side of Victorian London and the difficulties of being transgender in those times. An eccentric cast of wily suspects make this a good read for those who like character-led mysteries. For fans of Sarah Waters, Cath Staincliffe or anyone who enjoys a good crime novel. I look forward to hearing more about Leo Stanhope's adventures in Alex Reeve's next book in the series.

This is an unusual Victorian whodunit. Our protagonist and narrator is Leo Stanhope, whom we meet as he is working as assistant to a hospital pathologist, writing reports and even in some cases completing them when his boss is too busy to do so.
Every Wednesday evening Leo has an appointment with Maria - a prostitute with whom he has fallen in love. He even is brave enough to ask her to the theatre with him to which, to Leo's obvious delight, she agrees.
When a case of obvious drowning by intoxication is brought in to the mortuary and there is no sign of foul play Leo is sent along with a police constable to pass the news to the widow who seems far from convinced.
Leo thinks there may be more to it but his investigations are soon interrupted when Maria is found dead.
After being briefly arrested for the crime Leo is determined to uncover what happened to the love of his life and the rest of the novel follows his investigations.
Leo however has a big secret, he was born Charlotte, a woman in a man's body and, as the tale is told in the first person, we feel every agonising thought as he struggles every moment of every day to keep his secret and appear to the world as a man. Leo's transgenderism is sensitively handled but we are left in no doubt about the toll it takes on him. We learn how much he had to give up to be his true self and the mental health issues which have resulted. He has had to leave his family, and his sister, to whom he was very close, shuns him despite their living close to each other.
The world Leo inhabits is brutal and unforgiving. Child prostitution, drug addiction, back street abortions and horrifying poverty are every day facts of life to Leo. This world is a far cry from the country house party whodunits often set in this era.
The book is told in the first person and moves along at a cracking pace. It is totally fair but the reader would need to be eagle eyed to pick up the significance of the early clues. Leo's investigation is hampered by forces on all sides but his determination never wavers.
It is to be the first in a series and I very much look forward to reading more of his adventures.

First off, thanks so much to Raven Books for sending me an electronic version of this book. I was intrigued from the get go and started to love this book from the very beginning.

Leo Stanhope, a trans man living in London, gets mixed up in the murder of the woman he loves, leading him to delve into a mysterious network of crime and lies as he tries to find the real killer - but are some things better left alone?

As I've said, this book had me hooked from the start. This is the kind of book I want when I say we need more LGBT+ books. Yes, own voices are hugely important, and we still need books that focus on coming out, transitioning, queer romances - all very important and I love reading them too. But I also NEED more stories where gay people go to the moon - and the story is about going to the moon! Of course their sexuality will affect the plot and their life, but it's still just a gay guy off to the moon. Or a polyamorous lesbian fighting zombies. Or a trans man solving a murder!! This is by and large a thriller, a crime novel, a murder mystery, and the fact that Leo is trans IS hugely important, and does play a huge role, but... it's not the main part of the story. I loved that about this book.

I also really loved that this was set in Victorian London, a time period where you might read about the odd homosexual love story, but I don't think I've come across anything like this which features a trans character.

However, I am cis. As is the author, as far as I can tell. And while I can see no glaring obvious problems with the way Leo was written (for the most part, coming to that soon), I could be being very blinded by my lack of experience or knowledge in this area. I have seen some reviews on Goodreads that say it's obvious the author is cis by the way the book is written, and some more unfavourable reviews. On my behalf, I could see no real problems, and any problems that did arise, I didn't feel were intentional to harm trans people or their representation.

Having said that, there was one part in which Leo tells another character he is trans, that 'the body under these clothes is female' or something to that effect, and the scene proceeds to rape. I found this a very unnecessary part of the story as the same events could have followed without it, and I found it harmful, as if in some way Leo needed this to happen to prove to the readers that he does have a woman's body after all? I was actually really disappointed that this was included in the book.

That was my only real complaint. I loved all the other characters, especially Rosie and Constance, the relationships and dynamics between them all, and it was a really good thriller. I couldn't guess my way through to the end, and the reveal was satisfying in its own way. I am definitely going to be reading the next in the series, out in 2019 I believe, and will hope for no more senseless violence which does nothing to forward the plot.

Despite this rather glaringly unfortunate section of the book, I don't believe it was written in a way which was meant to be offensive and unappealing, and I devoured the rest of the book because it was just so good. So, I rate this 4 out of 5 stars.

Not my usual read but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. The plot gathers pace throughout, taking many turns along the way to a surprising conclusion. The main character is highly unexpected, adding to the overall plot. Supporting characters were also very unusual. All in all a very good read, with plenty of food for thought. I'd recommend it if you like a good mystery and want something slightly different.

This is a good debut novel with an original and most unlikely hero in Leo He used to be Charlotte and her desperate need to be accepted as a man causes her to flee her home for London to become her true self.

Leo's past is visited in his thoughts and his upbringing as the child of a reverend still colours his behaviour and conscience after the woman he loves is murdered. He begins investigating after, in his view, the wrong person is arrested and discovers a far darker side of life than even his job in a mortuary has prepared him for.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley in return for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an unusual but obviously well researched historical background to their crime fiction reading.

My thanks to Bloomsbury/Raven Books for an ebook edition, via NetGalley, of this fascinating historical mystery. It is currently available in hardback and ebook with the paperback release on 27th December.

Set in 1880s London its main character and narrator is Leo Stanhope, who works as a mortuary assistant at Westminster Hospital. When the body of a young woman comes into the mortuary Leo is horrified to see it is Maria, the woman he loves. She has been murdered and quickly Leo becomes a prime suspect.

This threatens to reveal the secret that he has lived with for 10 years: that he was born Charlotte Pritchard, the daughter of a reverend. Knowing that he was meant to be a man, despite the evidence of his body, he had run away from home and has lived as Leo ever since. Only a few people are aware of his secret.

I have read historical novels featuring women who disguised themselves as men in order to live a life denied to them by their gender but this is the first time that I have read one featuring a transgendered man. I see from the acknowledgments that Alex Reeve did approach the Beaumont Society, a group run for and by trans people, for advice and feedback on the novel and Leo’s portrayal. This care and attention is very evident throughout.

I certainly found Leo a very relatable character and could understand his desire to uncover the truth about Maria’s murder despite the dangers of immersing himself in London’s gritty underworld. There is also a strong supporting group of characters and the mystery itself has plenty of satisfying twists.

Reeve does a brilliant job of creating a vivid sense of place through his use of language bringing the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of Victorian London to life. It is an excellent novel, though quite dark in tone. I have been avidly recommending it to friends who are into well crafted historical crime fiction.

I am delighted that this is the first in a series and it is certainly an impressive debut. I’ll be looking out for ‘The Anarchists Club’ next May.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is very well written and moves at a good pace so you are never bogged down with detailed descriptions that add nothing to the plot. I found it to be an excellent Victorian crime yarn with the usual London stereotype characters denoting the rigid class structures of the time. However what makes this different is the transgender hero/heroine and you know from the start that he/she will not get his girl/boy and live happily ever after. Not quite worth five stars but I look forward to the next book in the series.

Leo Stanhope is in love with Maria. Maria is a whore and Leo Stanhope isn't the man people think. When Maria is murdered Leo tries to find out what happened to her. In the course of this he meets the real owner of the brothel she worked for and gets into a lot of bother, with the police and others.

A book that I enjoyed - although it did take me a while to get into it.