Max Fincher

In the prologue and first pages of the first chapter of Max Fincher’s The Pretty Gentleman, we learn that George Rowlands, a young aspiring painter, is in a prison awaiting his death by hanging for supposedly killing the valet of his patron, Lord Henry Wallace.

The year is 1810. The place is Regency England.

George tells us he’s innocent. “I had done nothing wrong. I had not committed any crime, except to love a man whom I thought loved me too.”

If so, how did he end up awaiting his execution? And will he somehow escape the hangman’s noose? If he doesn’t, he says, he’ll be a sacrifice “for that most demanding of gods, Society.”

I couldn’t possibly resist reading a novel with a hook like that. And as I read, I found myself whipping through the pages to find out what comes next.

The Pretty Gentleman is a wonderfully intricate novel. Knowing the entirely sympathetic but not flawless protagonist is awaiting his drop through the trap door of the gallows into nothingness made me suspect every other character of being the villain—or perhaps one of a party of villains.

So Fincher greatly entertained me even as he brought me face-to-face with sober reality. In the world of this story, where fortune and title rule, but same-sex intimacy is strictly forbidden, a lord craving it can pose as the patron of a man who shares his desire but lacks his money and position—if they keep the true nature of their relationship a dark secret.

When the possibility of the lord’s exposure arises, what sort of man would go so far to prevent it as to let his latest “protégé” be hanged?

For those who read for the enjoyment of a well-told tale and yet wish to ponder deeper matters along the way, I highly recommend The Pretty Gentleman.

(As originally reviewed on Rainbow Book Reviews. Please visit http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com for other reviews that may be of interest.)… (mere)