The Affair of the Porcelain Dog

So, this is not a romance novel. I don't read a lot of non-romance novels these days, so it was kind of nice to read about a gay character and not know what to expect. I figured the main character would survive, but otherwise, I had no idea what would happen at any point.

The plot is very exciting. But the blurb and other reviews do a good job of summarizing it, and this isn't a recent book. So I won't retread that too much.

Ira Adler is a young man in a relationship with a crime lord. Based only on that fact, I was expecting Ira to be sort of naive and sweet, but that isn't true at all. He is tough, smart, and prickly. At certain points, he is as grumpy and selfish as George Costanza. He's ended up in his situation because he really loves the luxury of living with someone so wealthy. He decides he is in love with Cain, eventually, but I don't think he ever was. And the story does not end with them together.

So, Ira isn't a cinnamon-roll type of character at all. Sometimes, I found him hard to like, but I never found him hard to sympathize with. He is a victim of circumstance for much of the story, but the overall plot is really about him taking control of his own destiny, and deciding what matters to him. I found it satisfying to see him come into his own in this way.

I'm very interested to discover what will happen in the rest of the series. All of the side characters, even the somewhat minor ones like Pearl and Mrs. Lazarus, really came alive for me, and I hope their stories continue in the other two books. I also liked (what I interpreted as) a positive portrayal of a bisexual man, Tim Lazarus. I feel he loved Ira in the past, and maybe still does, but he also loves his wife. It's far more common for queer historicals to portray bisexual men as unable to commit to anyone, and I was very glad to see another type of character here.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Philip Battley, who also narrates one of my favorite current series, Oxford Medieval Mysteries. He's very talented, and he really performs his narrations, with subtly distinct voices for each character.

I think there's an overlooked market for these kinds of books. I see a lot of requests on Reddit and Twitter from people who are looking for stories about queer characters that aren't romances. I'm very happy to add this one to my recommendations list.