~~Thank you to Edelweiss and Orenda Books for the ARC!~~

I honestly don't have much to say about this. It was just - so boring.

Too many long-winded descriptions, shallow characterizations across the board, the team up between Thomas and Gabriel taking almost half the book to get to, the insta-love between them that made my eyes roll so hard, the mystery, the investigation and unveiling, is completely uninteresting and is an absolute slog to read through, Thomas, the titular character, is a non-presence, agentless protagonist in his own book, I just was not having a good time.

The only aspect I somewhat liked was the history parts, mainly the mollies and the portrayal of queer men in 18th century London. Granted, I feel like the mean, one-dimensional mollies in this book don't do justice to the joy these spaces brought, but at least I can tell West did his research.

All in all, I didn't like this, though I wish I did. I definitely need to read more non-fiction LGBTQ+ history books this year.