Review: A Queer Case

A Queer Case by Robert Holtom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's 1929, Selby Bigge is a lower middle-class banking clerk living in a grubby bedsit by day and haunting Hampstead Heath by night looking for men of a similar persuasion. One night he comes across an old acquaintance from Oxford, one with whom he shared a brief kiss which Selby has never forgotten. The acquaintance, Patrick Duker is bemoaning the fact that his father, the banking millionaire Sir Lionel Duker has married a much younger woman, an alleged gold-digger and Patrick hates her.

For reasons known only to himself, Patrick invites Selby to have dinner with his father and step-mother at the Ritz with the intention of getting 'proof' that his step-mother is evil/a gold digger. Their dinner is enlivened when a journalist makes a scene and accuses Lady Duker of stealing away his lover (her first husband who she subsequently divorced). The journalist also made several accusations about Sir Lionel before being ejected from the Ritz. Not withstanding all the excitement, Selby is then invited to Sir Lionel's' birthday dinner at his home on Hampstead Heath where he is faced with a bizarre group of guests, including an alcoholic General, Patrick's fiancé (!), and a female novelist with a chip on her shoulder. Just as the evening is breaking up, the journalist comes banging on the door, a row ensues and in the chaos one of the dinner party is found dead, strangled in the Billiards Room.

Selby notices a few oddities, which the Police seem uninterested in pursuing, so he undertakes his own investigation - but soon discovers nearly every person at the dinner had a motive for killing the victim.

I have read several K.J. Charles novels and very much enjoyed them so when I saw the premise of this book, and the gorgeous cover, I requested it immediately. However, Selby didn't really come across as a likeable character, and he also appeared very gullible - which seems odd given that homosexuality was illegal then and therefore his gaydar/antennae for Police entrapment should have been finely honed. Also, the balance between enlightening the reader as to the way in which homosexuality was viewed/ the underground gay scene and the detection felt wrong - too much explanation and not enough real detection (other than going around accusing everyone in turn).

I feel it has promise and I would probably request the next book in the series, hoping that having established the historical context the mystery would come to the fore. Having said that, there were clues to the murderer and I did suspect something of the sort early on (and kind of forgot again).

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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