Written in the style of a (queer) Agatha Christie novel, A Queer case follows Selby Bigge, a bank clerk, who is a gay man constantly looking over his shoulder for the law. When he accidentally reconnects with a past flame, Selby is desperate to rekindle that connection with the high class gentleman. But Patrick is more intent on his own sordid life; specifically the pure hatred he carries for his young stepmother, Lucinda.

When Selby inadvertently witnesses the aftermath of a murder at Patrick’s party, he is thrown headfirst into a nest of vipers, with everyone seemingly having a motive for the murder. Desperate to get Patrick’s attention, Selby takes on the role of detective to try and help him figure out the culprit, but can Selby figure it out before he gets implicated himself?

This book is a murder mystery - don’t go into it expecting any sort of romance as you will be disappointed! In fact I found a number of characters (intentionally) deeply unlikeable, and couldn’t understand Selby’s willingness to spend time with them! That being said, there are a host of fascinating side characters, all with means and motives and I enjoyed the twists and turns.

There was a lot of homophobia in this novel, accurate to the time period (1920’s). Sometimes I wanted to scream at the horrible things the characters said to each other and that Selby had to sit and grit his teeth through. Even so, there were some glimpses at London’s underground gay scene as well as a wonderful gender-fluid character, who I loved! This book is a really difficult read in places, as many of the characters are unfairly demonised.

Read A Queer Case for:
✨ Murder mystery, a la Agatha Christie
✨ Gay MC
✨ Gender-fluid key SC
✨ Class differences in action
✨ Dealing with everyday homophobia
✨ Twists and turns, red herrings galore!
✨ (Intentionally) unlikeable suspects

Thanks to Titan Books for an eARC of this book via NetGalley! It’s available on 3rd June ✨

Enjoyable 1920s mystery with an entertaining central character in Selby Bigge - a gay Oxford graduate who gets involved in a high society murder. Good balance of actual mystery and social commentary - Bigge is acting as detective whilst also having to constantly act as a straight man at a time where homosexuality is illegal and the law is enforced and common meeting places for gay men are infiltrated by the police to trap people. A strong set of supporting characters some genuine mystery, and ultimately a possible sidekick for future stories made this a strong opening for the series.
I do hope Bigge gets a bit more satisfaction down the line as most of his ‘encounters’ didn’t really work out on a queer case…!

Sadly this was a DNF. I do enjoy historic and mystery tales of this type, but found the style of writing and characterisation to apparently be aimed at different audience (primarily male). I wanted to like it, very much, but don't think this series is for me. Apologies.

A vintage murder mystery with a heavy dose of homophobia. Yes, that's the reality of this book and the reality of life a century ago. It was a reminder of how intensely us queer folks used to have to live our lives in extreme secrecy, always looking over our shoulder, fearing discovery, incarceration and death (let alone, rarely being able to hope for love and a relationship). Sadly, many of us still live like this now. So, not a light-hearted book in any sense, but one that doesn't shy away from giving a realistic context. I will definitely read the next book, and I hope Theo also makes an appearance in that one.

Now, I'm not a mystery connoisseur, but I do enjoy them! This was the first book, I believe, by Robert Holtom. Does it rely a little on dialogue? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Not in my opinion. The pacing is good, the characters well-rounded and entirely fallable, and the queer history and setting was neither preachy, fantastical nor disregarded.

An enjoyable read that goes down very quickly, and I would definitely read the next in the series.