SLIPPERY CREATURES, first in a trilogy of post-Great War spy romantic thrillers

SLIPPERY CREATURES
K.J. CHARLES (Will Darling Adventures #1)
KJC Books (non-affiliate link to Amazon)
$3.99 Kindle edition, available now

30 November 2022: It's FREE for a limited time at this link.

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Will Darling came back from the Great War with a few scars, a lot of medals, and no idea what to do next. Inheriting his uncle’s chaotic second-hand bookshop is a blessing...until strange visitors start making threats. First a criminal gang, then the War Office, both telling Will to give them the information they want, or else.

Will has no idea what that information is, and nobody to turn to, until Kim Secretan—charming, cultured, oddly attractive—steps in to offer help. As Kim and Will try to find answers and outrun trouble, mutual desire grows along with the danger.

And then Will discovers the truth about Kim. His identity, his past, his real intentions. Enraged and betrayed, Will never wants to see him again.

But Will possesses knowledge that could cost thousands of lives. Enemies are closing in on him from all sides—and Kim is the only man who can help.

THE AUTHOR PROVIDED ME WITH A REVIEW COPY. THANK YOU!

My Review: If you remade Notorious with Steve Cochran

*swoon*
...opposite Cary Grant instead of Ingrid Bergman...

*double swoon*
...it would feel a lot like this read. And I hope y'all've been paying enough attention to me to know that I mean this as a deep and sincere compliment.

A lovely period piece in the vein of the above smoldering-hot film about finding Nazi spies. Will is the Ingrid character, damaged and fragile on the inside but a tough survivor. Kim is Cary's Devlin, a master manipulator. Kim is a man whose core principle is survival, and not necessarily yours, before love or friendship or even sex. (Imagine!) And he's not the least bit sure, when he meets Will, that he wants to alter his priorities. To his credit, Kim is clear that he is not reliable, and Will would do well to be cautious with his feelings around Kim. Since when has that ever mattered to a man in love, may I ask?

He had no idea what civilians, or civilised people, would say in these circumstances. Thanks for that, old chap, much obliged, perhaps? Ought he apologise for coming in his mouth? Would this be a good moment to restart the conversation about where Kim had learned to use a knife? Thank God they were British. He took a deep breath.

“Cup of tea?”

But there is, as one expects when one reads Author Charles's books, A Reason for Kim's dishonesty, dissembling, and frequent disappearances. He is a spy to serve his country, though not for ordinary reasons and not in ordinary ways. The secret is one you should discover on your own, but part of it is being gay in Edwardian England wasn't fun if it became too obvious or if it couldn't be politely ignored. Kim's used his upper-class manners and mores to keep problems from surfacing that could have terrible consequences for other people:

“I realise it’s none of my business. It’s just that there’s clearly something up, I liked the little I knew of your uncle, and mostly I am insatiably curious. It’s my besetting sin. So I will ask once more whether you’re really all right, and if I can help at all.” He raised his hands. “And if you say no, I’ll drop the subject.”–to Will early in the story
–and–
"...Kim says, Well, that needs to be dealt with, and he deals with it, and then you’ll be sorry. Whereas most people say, Oh, how dreadful, you poor dear, and they don’t do anything at all. Or they don’t say anything nice and they blame the person in trouble, so maybe Kim is kind by comparison even if he isn’t sympathetic in the slightest."–to Will from Kim's, umm, special lady-friend

Kim, then, is a Man of Action, if also a man of most pliable morals. And Will is a soldier, a man whose war was spent in the trenches, and a man in so far over his head in the peace that the additional stress of his late uncle's unknown-to-him secrets that bring Kim into his life almost sink his sanity as well as his badly needed and only way of making a living:

You couldn’t go out for a drink, you were ashamed of the shabby state of your clothes, you feared people might expect you to touch them for cash so you withdrew first rather than endure that additional humiliation on top of poverty’s many other insults. (US readers note that "touch" is used in the UK sense of "borrow")
–and–
He went through another box of his uncle’s letters at his desk, working mechanically, serving customers out of bloody-mindedness rather than enthusiasm. None of them seemed surprised by his attitude. Maybe he was getting the hang of bookselling.

Shades of Bernard Black! And such a very Will thing to do: His goddamned duty, no matter he hates it, no matter it makes no sense to him, D.U.T.Y. before all. In the end, that really is the thing he shares with Kim, as both men know what it is to do the right thing no matter the difficulty or personal cost:

"... But I’ll tell you this, young man, he asked me a few years ago not to believe anything he hadn’t told me himself, and I haven’t and shan’t. So if you want to know why he didn’t go home, it’s because not many people know him like his nanny, and them as should, don’t. But if I needed help, there’s nobody in the world I’d turn to before Master Kim. You remember that.”

Will, to his credit, does; Kim, to his credit, honors Will's trust with weird, off-kilter but effective help. It is a lovely and heartening thing to see, even if only on the pages of a novel.

This was as much fun as I can remember having in ages. And, as a note to lazier writers, I will point out that, at precisely no time did Author Charles drop a single, foul, heinously overused w-bomb. Not one. I assure you that the opportunity was present any number of times...I went back to re-read a certain bookstore scene to be quite, quite sure I hadn't simply elided the ghastly thing, it was so juicily ripe for one...but Author Charles never once depressed the giant red button.

For that, and for the delights of Will and Kim's wounding word-play, I am most profoundly grateful.