England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage.

Curtis’s search takes him to an isolated, ultra-modern country house, where he meets and instantly clashes with fellow guest Daniel da Silva. Effete, decadent, foreign, and all too obviously queer, the sophisticated poet is everything the straightforward British officer fears and distrusts.

As events unfold, Curtis realizes that Daniel has his own secret intentions. And there’s something else they share—a mounting sexual tension that leaves Curtis reeling.

And when the house party’s elegant facade cracks to reveal treachery, blackmail and murder, Curtis finds himself needing clever, dark-eyed Daniel as he has never needed a man before…

Even though this is only 200 pages, I commend Charles for packing so much character development and action within it.

First off, the spy plot was well-plotted. Despite Curtis’ fumbling first attempts, it reveals the greater conspiracy than just sabotaged guns (which is bad enough) that makes one utterly despise the antagonists so when they get to the end, you’re cheering Curtis and de Silva on to foil them.

Also Charles makes full-use of Curtis’ army backstory and Viking build to create some blood-pumping fights and gun stand-offs. No wringing about murder being bad, these guys are trained.

But the action is second most important to the romance. I enjoyed how even though Charles positions Curtis and de Silva as foils with Curtis being the masculine presenting, straightforward, brawny solider with de Silva being the poetic, pacifist, cunning and flamboyant not to mention a foreigner and a Jew, she also has their similarities tie them together.

Curtis’ insecurities are obvious with his crippled hand, that he feels he has to be ultra fit to make up for it and prove that he’s not as useless as he feels. De Silva’s are also obvious as he faces three-fold prejudice for his foreignness (as a dago or Portuguese), as a Jew, and for his sexuality. While he meets ignorance with biting wit, he is all too aware of the stereotypes associated with his kind and is defensive with Curtis’ naive and thoughtless prejudice.

Curtis’ arc in realizing his sexuality is nicely done too. He’s not a deep thinker, and he knows it, but that makes the way clearer for when he realizes he does like de Silva for more than a suck-off, he won’t be swayed. The straightforwardness may be foolhardy, but I adored how willing Curtis was to prove to de Silva that he meant it. Not to mention it so subtly showed that being gay doesn’t automatically mean you’re ultra-feminine or limp-wristed. You can still be you, so to speak.

Another romantic moment would have to be when Curtis stops thinking of de Silva by his last name but as Daniel. That’s when you know, he’s absolutely lost.

It was a refreshing change of scenery to have an early 20th century setting and Charles does a nice job in detailing the more laxed social norms of the Edwardian era, the delight of the people at new technology like electricity and phone operators, and hint at the beginning of the eugenics/nazism of the coming era.

The supporting cast like Fen, and Pat were fun (especially since they have their own novel sharing their story at the country house while Curtis and de Silva are gallivanting in caves), and the antagonists were odious, but the sheer number of names got confusing a bit. But that’s a minor nitpick amongst everything.

Even though we didn’t get Daniel’s POV (which is what keeps it from being a complete 5 stars. I mean, I’m sure his POV would have been delightful), I think Charles did a great job in revealing the fears and insecurities Daniel was hiding behind pricky bravado through Curtis’ POV.

A fun albeit dangerous romp through the countryside, I give it 4 stars