the hanover square affair by ashley gardner

His interactions with Grenville, a very wealthy man with tons of money and not a lot that interests him, were by far my favorite part. There are people from his past who haven’t given up on him, people who remain in the periphery of his life even though he won’t forgive them, and people whose acquaintance builds into a lovely, interesting friendship. What kept me going with this book was Lacey himself, and the relationships he builds in the first book. The mystery is twisty and challenging, and the culprit was not easy to spot, but the crimes and related incidents were often difficult for me to listen to as I walked. Bad shit happens to people, especially young women, in this story, so I’m not entirely sure I can continue with the series. Trigger warnings for rape, assault, and other crimes I don’t want to specify as they’d be a spoiler. Once Lacey gets involved, the story of why the man was hollering at an empty house grows larger and more complicated. One short scene later, the man has been shot by an inexperienced soldier, and his commander, someone with whom Lacey has a bad history, ignores everything and leaves Lacey to deal with a man bleeding on the street. An older man is yelling at the house, and Lacey immediately recognizes the man’s grief and desperation.

The mystery begins immediately when Lacey sees soldiers and a small angry mob outside of a house on Hanover Square. He’s not financially doing well, he suffers from depression and from the pain of a poorly-healed injury, and he’s emotionally grieving for a number of things, some of which are revealed in this book and some which are only alluded to. This is the first book in the Captain Lacey mystery series: Captain Lacey is living a pale, uncertain existence following the Napoleonic wars. I listened to this book after learning about the series during our SBTB Book Club Chat for Death Below Stairs, also by Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner. This review is for both the narrative and the audiobook of The Hanover Square Affair. Genre: Historical: European, Mystery/Thriller

The hanover square affair by ashley gardner