The Anarchists’ Club

Set in Victorian London, Reeve’s well-crafted sequel to 2019’s Half Moon Street finds Leo Stanhope, formerly Lottie Pritchard, involved in another thought-provoking murder case. A few days after Dora Hannigan, accompanied by her two children, Aidan and Ciara, makes a small purchase at the pharmacy owned by Leo’s landlord, the police bring Leo to a club for political radicals, where Dora’s corpse has been found. Since Leo’s name and address are on Dora’s body, they doubt his claim that she’s a stranger. As Leo is leaving, he’s accosted by a childhood acquaintance, a wealthy industrialist’s radical son, who threatens to reveal his secret—that Leo was born and raised as female—if Leo won’t provide him with an alibi. Afraid of being prosecuted or committed to an asylum, Leo agrees to do so, fueling police suspicion further. Meanwhile, Aidan and Ciara, now homeless, return to the pharmacy, the last place they visited before Dora’s death. Leo grows increasingly attached to the children as he pursues the killer, who Ciara insists is a lion. In this nicely plotted puzzle, Reeve movingly explores Leo’s inner life. Readers will hope he’ll return soon. (Oct.)