Review: Molly Boys by Vawn Cassidy

Title: Molly Boys

Series: London Underside: Book One

Author: Vawn Cassidy

Length: 372 Pages

Category: Murder Mystery, Gaslamp Fantasy, Historical Romance

Rating: 3.5 Stars

At a Glance: There wasn’t much new or different about Molly Boys, nothing I hadn’t read before in one form or another, but that familiarity made this an easy story to breeze through. It’s not a comfort read so much as anticipating where the author was taking me and being willing to follow her characters there.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: London 1885:

For Lord Everett Stanley, escaping his fate seemed impossible. As the second son, he’s destined for ordination and the life of a Reverend, but he’s hiding a dangerous secret. The laws punishing homosexuality by hanging may have been repealed but he and others of his kind are far from safe. Given no other choice, they take solace in the underground molly houses of London. Now that fragile world is threatened when the East End is rocked by a series of gruesome murders.

Inspector Archibald Franklin worked hard to overcome his working-class roots, making a name for himself as a respected inspector of Whitechapel’s H Division, but when he begins to investigate the deaths of several beautiful young men, fate throws him into the path of the handsome and enigmatic Lord Stanley. His gut instinct tells him the young lord knows more about the murders than he lets on, but the closer he gets, the more Everett calls to him in a way he’s tried to deny his whole life.

As a reign of terror grips London, they are drawn together in order to stop a monster, but for Archie, the growing feelings he has for Everett are a betrayal of the very laws he has sworn to uphold. And as the killer closes in, the two men find themselves bound together by a passion that may be their ultimate salvation or their utter destruction…

Review: Vawn Cassidy crafted the monster, murderer, and maniacal mayhemist in Molly Boys in the supernatural stylings of a well-known Gothic Horror novel. I’m not sure if this is a tribute to that classic or was merely an accessible way to engage readers familiar with the Victorian era work of fiction, but it efficiently paves the way for a serial killer and the introduction of The Underside, a cryptic faction of hunters and practitioners of the arcane.

This story is a tribute to hedonism wrapped in a murder mystery, with a bit of forbidden romance situated alongside a monster stalking the alleys and sidewalks of 19th century London. There is a heavy Ripper element to the novel as well, given the locale and surgical stylings of a monster who is killing young and beautiful men. Specifically men who enjoy the company of other men. Inspector Archibald Franklin is determined to aprehend the perpetrator of these heinous crimes, without prejudice. Lord Everett Stanley is simply determined not to be the monster’s next victim.

There wasn’t much new or different about Molly Boys, nothing I hadn’t read before in one form or another, but that familiarity made this an easy story to breeze through. The setting is defined in a way that doesn’t romanticize the era: the dank air, smoggy streets, and the pervasive stench of raw sewage in the Thames are cloyingly present and a great tone-setter for the danger. It’s not a comfort read so much as anticipating where the author was taking me and being willing to follow her characters there, some of whom stole the story from Ev and Archie—specifically Ev’s best friend, Francis, and Jack, an orphan straight out of the pages of a Dickens novel (had Dickens written a good bit grittier).

A note to readers who appreciate it: Molly Boys ends in such a way that means no HEA or HFN thanks to some eleventh-hour machinations that coerce and extort Ev into giving up on any sort of connection to Archie, setting up the romantic suspense for the next book to go along with more mysterious goings-on that, based upon The Freak Show‘s blurb, will pay homage to yet another classic Gothic Horror novel.