A Gentleman's Murder - Christopher Huang - 3 stars

[Robin P]

This is a mystery set in 1924 in England. The amateur detective is half Chinese/half English but grew up totally in England, went through English schools and served in WWI. His job is in a publishing house for mysteries. When a murder occurs at his club and the police detective does something suspicious, Eric Peterkin decides to investigate himself. Not surprisingly, the case turns out to have ties to the war and many people have secrets. The author wanted to emulate the Golden Age mysteries with a limited number of suspects. But something doesn't quite work. We only see the same 5 or 6 members of what must be a large club, and they have all kinds of ties. Eric himself is a bit of a blank. It sounded like the author was going to do a series where Eric solves mysteries at country houses and so on, but instead he wrote a book in a totally different time and setting. Maybe he will come back to this one and the character and his sidekicks will develop further.