The Case of the Deadly Deception, by Charlie Cochrane

[Ulysses]

The Case of the Deadly Deception
BY Charlie Cochrane
Published by Williams and Whiting, 2024;

The place is London, and the year is 1953. The young Queen Elizabeth II is about to be crowned. Great Britain’s silver-screen heartthrobs, Toby Bowe and Alasdair Hamilton, are still filling the theaters with their mixed film repertoire of costume dramas and detective stories. While quietly acknowledged and supported by their studio, Toby and Alasdair are closeted by necessity. England is still very much not a friendly place for same-sex romance, and our heroes must be careful not to be seen together too much, and must be seen to be dating pretty young women. It is the framework of the entire narrative, a constant reminder of harsh reality. That said, Toby and Alasdair are luckier than most in their situation.

An unanticipated invitation from something called the Monday Evening Club draws our young war heroes into a peculiar mystery. What starts out as a possible missing person devolves into a mystery that begins to look more and more sinister. The deeper Toby and Alasdair dig, the more confusing the mystery becomes. Plying their charms as celebrities, they must not only find the missing person, but potentially derail a violent international incident.

As always, Charlie Cochrane gets the tone and the language of the period just right. It is very British, and very London-centric, which creates a vivid picture of life in the post-War Metropolis. The author relies on conversation for the most part to move the plot along, but there are key moments of action that help remind us that our amateur detectives are actual war heroes. It is such a pleasure to read this series.